By Jan Ehrlichman, Mark Mayer, Donna Riordan and Michael Riordan
The Cape Violet, a massive Capesize coal carrier that transits the San Juan Islands. One of the largest WA State Ferries is shown to scale for comparison. Source: Matt Krogh, RE Sources for Sustainable Communities.
Goldman Sachs, SSA Marine, Peabody Coal and BNSF Railway are plotting to build a huge port facility near Orcas that would ship coal to China but severely impact the vulnerable Salish Sea environment.
Citizens of Whatcom County are up in arms over this Gateway Pacific Terminal project, proposed for construction next to the BP refinery on Cherry Point. Over 800 people showed up at a recent public meeting to voice concerns about its economic and environmental impacts.
Nearly 200 medical professionals have signed a petition decrying the adverse health effects of mile-long coal trains chugging almost hourly through the Bellingham waterfront. These effects range from asthma attacks caused by coal dust to ten-minute ambulance delays at rail crossings.
Less obvious — but no less real — are the impacts this project, if allowed, will have on our fair but fragile islands. At capacity, the facility would export up to 54 million tons of coal per year, involving almost 500 enormous Panamax or Capesize bulk ore carriers annually, or nearly three transits per day, coming and going, through the narrow, congested Rosario or Haro Straits.
These “bulkers” can stretch more than 1,200 feet — or four football fields — long and over 100 feet wide, carrying up to 200,000 tons of coal. Capesize carriers are too big to fit through Panama Canal. Cherry Point is one of the few sites in Washington able to accommodate such deep-draft vessels near shore.
A brief video showing one of these enormous ships trying to maneuver can be viewed at https://youtu.be/oTkUU22mmR0.
Aside from the visual blight this seaborne parade will entail, there is an insidious underwater noise problem. According to reliable sources, propellers on such bulkers generate low-frequency noise exceeding 180 decibels. That’s the in-water equivalent of the roar of a jumbo jet on takeoff! Ever wonder why airport workers wear ear protectors out on the tarmac?
Think of what life would be like for the orcas, harbor seals, porpoises and other marine life, for water transmits sound far better than air. It will be literally deafening for hundreds of yards around these leviathan carriers. What kinds of environmental damage will this subsea cacophony cause?
And it doesn’t end there. A collision of a single bulker with an oil tanker traversing these straits — or with shoals along its route — could dump many thousands of gallons of oil or bunker fuel into San Juan County waters. The full recovery of the marine ecosystem from such a catastrophe would take decades.
Even without such a catastrophic event, these bulkers will impact Pacific herring that spawn every spring near Cherry Point, a favorite spawning ground. And that will ultimately affect the salmon feeding on these herring, as well as the orcas that feed upon the salmon.
Citizens of San Juan County should be up in arms, too, over the planned coal port visible from Orcas shores. We can demand that our special concerns be included in the Environmental Impact Statement about to be developed.
Scoping hearings to determine the breadth of this study must take place on our islands, too — not just in Whatcom County. But such hearings will occur only if enough San Juan residents, businesses and officials demand them. San Juan County Council members have already done so, but they need your support to help make it happen.
And time is of the essence. The opportunity to request these hearings could vanish in a few weeks if we do nothing. To offer your help or learn more, please contact the Orcas NoCoalition soon at OrcasNoCoal@gmail.com.
Or write directly to the officials below, requesting that a scoping hearing be held on Orcas Island, as well as on Lopez and San Juan:
Randel Perry, Project Manager
US Army Corp of Engineers
1440 10th Street, Suite 102
Bellingham, WA 98225
Email: Randel.J.Perry@usace.army.mil
Alice Kelly, Planner
WA Department of Ecology, NWRO
3190 16th Avenue SE
Bellevue, WA 98008
Email: AKel461@ecy.wa.gov
Tyler Schroeder, Planning Supervisor
Whatcom County Planning and Development Services
5280 Northwest Drive
Bellingham, WA 98226
Email: TSchroed@co.whatcom.wa.us
**If you are reading theOrcasonian for free, thank your fellow islanders. If you would like to support theOrcasonian CLICK HERE to set your modestly-priced, voluntary subscription. Otherwise, no worries; we’re happy to share with you.**
[…] Scoping and the environmental review process were described in the Bellingham Herald recently. Our current process is only step one, asking that the involved authorities hold meeting here on the islands so that large numbers of us don’t have to travel to Bellingham to have concerns heard. We ultimately need to make certain the authorities in charge understand all risks to the island economy and take all appropriate actions on our behalf. The scoping meetings are anticipated sometime this summer. Read the complete Bellingham Herald article HERE. Read about SSA-Marine’s proposal HERE. Read about the effects on local marine life and the Orcas view of Cherry Point from their east side and Mount Constitution HERE. […]
Everyone should be up in arms over this! This is almost unbelieveable. The obvious overt actual damage to the environment and the potential for even more immediate disaster is obvious to anyone who is even half awake? Are we trying to create the”doomsday of 2012″ through corporate greed. Stop this before it goes any further!