Wednesday, April 8, 2015

Oil Spill Response Plan for the Chehalis River- public comment needed!

Chehalis River Geographic Response Plan (GRP)


Public Comment Period April 8, 2015 - May 8, 2015
This Plan is Currently Being Created - Scheduled Completion is June 2015
Chehalis River near Adna
Plan Update Milestones and Timeline:
  • Plan Initiated - June 25, 2014
  • Public Workshop - October 7, 2014
  • Field Work Completion - December 2014
  • Draft Plan Available for Public Comment - April 2015
  • Final Plan Approval - May 2015
  • Final Plan and Ecology’s Response to Public Comments Published - June 2015
  • Project Completion - June 30, 2015

Public Comment is Open

Public comment for the draft Chehalis River GRP is open between April 8, 2015 through May 8, 2015. Comments received before 5:00 pm on May 8, 2015 will be answered in a responsiveness summary, published alongside the final plan.

Click here to download the draft Chehalis River GRP (Adobe PDF 31 MB)

Click here to see an interactive map of the draft Chehalis River GRP Response Strategies


How to Comment
If you have any questions or comments, suggestions for improvement, or find errors in this document please submit comments online at
http://www.rrt10nwac.com/Comment, email them to us at
GRPs@ecy.wa.gov, or forward them via U.S.Mail to the following agencies:

United States Environmental Protection Agency
Region 10
Office of Environmental Cleanup
1200 Sixth Avenue
Room ECL-116
Seattle, WA 98101

Washington State Department of Ecology Spill Prevention, Preparedness, and Response (GRPs) P.O. Box 47600
Olympia, WA 98504-7600


Project Coverage Area
The Chehalis River runs through Lewis, Thurston and Grays Harbor Counties and empties into Grays Harbor at Aberdeen. The Chehalis GRP will include waters upstream of the eastern boundary of the Grays Harbor GRP near Cosmopolis and cover 120 miles of the river as it winds east/southeast to Centralia and Chehalis, then west to the South and West Fork. The Chehalis River is paralleled by rail lines carrying biodiesel, methanol and potentially crude oil to coastal refineries. The rail lines also cross Chehalis tributaries, including the Wynoochee, Satsop, Black, Skookumchuck and Newaukum Rivers. There are also risks from tanker trucks on highways and the Olympic Pipeline where it crosses tributaries to the east of I-5. Tidal influences near the mouth of the Chehalis River could push a spill in the harbor upriver into vulnerable sloughs and wetlands.

Workshop Information
A public workshop was held at 7 p.m. on October 7 in the Minnie Lingreen Auditorium, room 121 in the WSC building at Centralia College.

Here is a copy of the PowerPoint presentation that was given at the workshop (2.1 MB PDF). The video of the presentation was unfortunately lost, but here is a similar presentation that was focused on the Columbia River.

Please send comments or questions to Wendy Buffett at wbuf461@ecy.wa.gov 360/407-6523.

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