County Council Letters re: Coal Terminal Scoping

San Juan Update news correspondent Louise Dustrude has more on the lead-up to scoping meetings here on the proposed Gateway Pacific coal terminal:

The County Council sent four letters last year relating to the proposed coal terminal at Cherry Point, first asking for a scoping meeting here in the county — which occurred on November 3rd — and then raising the potential impacts and concerns they believed needed to be addressed in the EIS scoping process.
Asserting that “San Juan County’s economy is inextricably connected to the beauty of its environment and the health of its ecosystems,” the letters posed over 50 questions the Council felt must be addressed.

Examples:

What is the risk of an oil and/or coal spill from a collision … involving the single-hull bulk carriers?
How widespread would the damage be? How many species and commercial and recreational fisheries would be impacted?
How many local jobs and businesses would be adversely impacted and/or lost?
What would be the impacts to property values?
What would be the impacts to desalinization systems?

The letters were drafted by council member Lovel Pratt and signed by all six then-council members: Rich Peterson, Howie Rosenfeld, Richard Fralick, chair Patty Miller, vice-chair Jamie Stephens, and Pratt.

The letters are available here:
SJCC_Gateway_EIS_ScopingCommentLetter_2012_12_18
SJCC_GatewayEIS_ScopingCommentLetter_2012_10_30
SJCC_GatewayEIS_ScopingCommentLetter_2012_11_27
SJCCrequestUSACEareawideEIS_26June2012

Once again, if you have questions that you think need to be asked, you can submit them on the Gateway Pacific EIS website comment form.

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