Earthjustice DEIS Comment Letter- sign on opportunity

 Elma DEIS hearing, Oct 1, 2015

The letter below addresses the threat to our region posed by the proposed oil terminals in Grays Harbor, and has links that connect to an EJ comment letter to Ecology and the city of Hoquiam asking that the permits be rejected. Your comments at the petition site will be added to a general letter and forwarded on as official comment. 

Thursday Oct 8th will be the Aberdeen DEIS hearing where you can give comments in person. The hearing will be held at the D&R Theatre, 205 South I Street, Aberdeen, WA 98520

Rally at 5:00 pm in front of the D&R Theater! wear red

 

The hearing will have two sessions, from 1:30 – 4:30 pm and then again at 6:00 – 9:00pm.  Please attend one or both. The future of the Washington Coast is at risk.

See info here,  here and here for fact sheets and info on submitting written comments.

Please share this important link with your friends and neighbors!



Dear Friends:
We have a chance to stand up to the oil industry now and slow the dangerous expansion of oil transport in Washington.

Oil companies want to expand their Northwest operations by building oil shipping terminals on Washington’s coast and turning our region into a thoroughfare for crude oil transportation by rail and oil tanker.

Take action now to stop two terminals proposed for Grays Harbor, Washington, and protect your community from increased crude oil rail traffic, oil spills and carbon pollution. 

The proposed oil shipping terminals; the explosive, dangerous oil trains needed to feed them; and the continual parade of oil tankers and barges taking the crude over thriving marine waters would put the health and safety of communities, the local economy, tribal culture, and our ocean and coastlines at risk.

This is not the future we want.

A public comment period is underway right now on draft environmental reviews of the risks and harms from the proposed Westway and Imperium terminals in Grays Harbor. Let the Washington Department of Ecology and the City of Hoquiam know that we understand the risks we face with these oil industry proposals, and we don’t think they’re worth it.

The draft environmental reviews found that the risks of oil spills during rail transport, at the terminal site, and during marine vessel transport through Grays Harbor cannot be fully mitigated, and that if a spill occurred, the environmental damage would be significant.

Whether you live five or five hundred miles from Grays Harbor, the oil industry plans to bring more dangerous types of oil through the region, including volatile Bakken crude and toxic tar sands from Canada, increasing the risk of a derailment, collision, spill, fire, or explosion…putting people in Washington at risk.

There’s still time to stop these projects, but to win, we need to your help!

Take action now, then share this alert with five of your friends. Together we can protect our Northwest communities! 
 
Sincerely,
Kristen Boyles 
Attorney
Earthjustice, Northwest Office  
 

SMELL THAT CRUDE- Observations by Dave Furford

SMELL THAT CRUDE

Grays Harbor County and its surrounding area are strategically important to the security of our region and nation. We are the gateway to the coast of Washington, with an international seaport, a rail connection to the main line, a certified airport and a freeway to our states population center and military bases.

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We  have  been  muddling  too  long without  a   vision. Our  ecosystems  and   infrastructures  are  in   jeopardy,  with potential   choking points.

Smell that crude, a smothering oil with volatile gases: it's on the horizon, a threat to our security and livability, a temptress that can be easily triggered by a terrorist attack, a natural disaster or a train  derailment.

Without realizing it, we have built "cluster bombs" in the form of hazardous liquid tanks on our waterfront, served with rail and sea tankers, "bombs" in their own  right.

Grays Harbor is now at risk, even without crude oil. The transfer, storage and processing of large volumes of hazardous liquids should be suspended until  those companies that are responsible provide a cleanup and recovery system, with an ironclad guarantee to pay for the damages that may occur.    

We must replace the two rail bridges that were torn down on the Chehalis River, with combined train and car bridges, relocated to join Aberdeen, Hoquiam, Cosmopolis and Junction City into one industrial base, including a "holding and switching yard" for products of concern. These new connections will bring an added efficiency to our emergency departments, while enhancing the security    of our region and nation. 

The   funneling  of   highway   traffic into  downtown   Aberdeen  without  adequate  parking  is  a problem, but  can  be  relieved   by   relocating   the highway  to  State Street   traveling  east, and   to First  Street  traveling  west,  allowing  the  streets  in  between  to  be  converted  to  the  friendlier two-way streets, and with the wider streets, patterned after Broadway Street's angled parking, dramatically  improving    the   parking   and   ease   of   movement.

Broadway Street could be extended to the Chehalis River for a cruise ship dock, and a multi-use depot (for train, riverboat and bus excursions), surrounded by shops, restaurants and lodgings, reflecting our colorful past and rich Native American culture.

With government grants, we can rebuild our infrastructures, with a redundancy  backing-up our region and nation in the event of a catastrophe.

Our common security depends on the quality of our ecosystems and infrastructures, the multipliers of our economy and well being.

David R Furford
Aberdeen, WA 
 (360) 580 - 8564