New Plans Released for the Gateway Pacific Terminal

— by Michael Riordan —

Bellingham is abuzz with news that coal-port proponents have released revised plans for the Gateway Pacific Terminal. On Tuesday, Pacific International Terminals, a subsidiary of Seattle-based SSA Marine revealed a new alignment of the storage facilities and railroad tracks that, they claim, will reduce impacts on wetlands by almost 50 percent.

The story broke Thursday in the Bellingham Herald, after rumors had been circulating earlier this week. What allowed the new alignment was acquisition of an additional parcel south of the original site, extending to the shores of Georgia Strait. That would allow terminal builders to move the coal-storage piles closer to the water and consolidate the railroad tracks into a single figure-8 loop.

“We actually went out and got control of another 350 acres that allowed us to develop this alternative layout and resulted in the net reduction of wetlands,” bragged SSA Marine Vice President Bob Watters. “Gateway Pacific Terminals is making good on what we have said from the beginning — we are committed to protecting the environment and abiding by our state’s strict environmental standards.”

Indeed, the reduction of wetland impacts is impressive. But opponents also note that moving the open coal-storage piles (and coal-moving operations) nearer the water’s edge will mean that more fugitive coal dust from these piles inevitably gets into the Cherry Point Aquatic Reserve just offshore — especially when fierce gale-force Fraser Gap winds blow from the northeast in the winter.

That would lead to added coal dust polluting the usual and accustomed fishing grounds of the Lummi Nation. A thriving Dungeness crab fishery just off Cherry Point would likely be affected.

“The new proposal does not change the purpose or function of the terminal,” said Lummi chairman Tim Ballew. So “both proposals will have the same impact to the Tribe’s treaty rights, and both proposals will impact Xwe’chi’eXen,” one of our [ancient] village sites.”

In fact, moving the storage piles south puts them closer to the village site, designated State Historic Site 45WH1, an archaeological preserve. That can only mean additional coal dust blackening the ancient Lummi burial grounds.

Bellingham attorney Terry Wechsler, a leader of Project Whatcom, claims the proposed changes are so significant that the environmental impact statement commenting process should be reopened, especially because the construction period could be dramatically reduced. “The public, agencies and Washington tribes should be given an opportunity to comment on the effect of the truncated construction schedule in the context of other new information,” she stated.

Any impacts on the San Juan Islands will change little, as the terminal is still projected to ship 54 million metric tons of bulk goods annually — 48 million of them Powder River Basin coal — from the new alignment. That continues to mean nearly 500 bulk carriers, many of them as long as three football fields, coursing though our Salish Sea waters every year.

Michael Riordan writes about science, technology and culture from his home in Eastsound.