Billionaires’ Coal for Our Stockings

Robotic Town Hall

Coal did not give Bellingham and Whatcom County a merry holiday nor wish us a good and peace-filled New Year. Instead SSA-Goldman Sachs’ Gateway Pacific Terminal (GPT) gave us large lumps of coal for our stockings; annoying us first with an effort to sell Bellingham’s Edgemoor neighborhood on the wondrous gifts those heavily laden trains from afar would bring (Tip Johnson Dec. 4, 2011 “The Cole Train: Loads of BS” at nwcitizen.com) and, next, with robotic calls inviting us to a “telephone town hall” without specifying “whose town” or “whose hall” participants would dial into.

Of course, this was a carefully screened, carefully staged public relations foray, with well manicured “answers,” delving into the hearts and minds of the citizenry in an attempt to find out what their thoughts were, gather data, plan more of their spin. A few critics managed to get through the PR controlled maze and ask difficult questions of SSA executive Bob Watters.

At 350 Bellingham (www.facebook.com/350Bellingham) RE Sources’ Bob Ferris posted an interesting comment and directions for citizens to file complaints about violations of the national do-not-call list or telemarketing violations with the Federal Communications Commission (www.fcc.gov/complaints)

Whatcom Planning Commotion

Whatcom County government is not starting the environmental year off well. Anticipating an SSA-GPT proposal, preparations are underway to identify suitable Environmental Impact Study (EIS) consultants (see coaltrainfacts.org). After looking at protecting the Birch Bay watershed for over twelve years, a Planning Commission hearing was abruptly scheduled for Dec. 8. The County’s Planning and Development Services (PDS) original proposal allowed the Cherry Point industrial area to be considered for Low Impact Development (LID) standards as well as the potential to mitigate on-site impacts off-site, perhaps through a mitigation fund. A flurry of citizen activity responded--some fearing that a WhatCo gift to SSA was in the works, and PDS removed Cherry Point from its proposal.

Scores of e-mails poured in and a large number of citizens attended the hearing where twenty testified-- about seventy per cent wanting Cherry Point out of the remedies that were essentially for residential and commercial parcels—not industrial (according to Commissioner John Lesow, speaking as a citizen). The Planning Commission decided 9-1 to go with the original flawed proposal—for now. (see “What you can do” below)

The complicated issues of this matter and the hearing have been well covered by Jean Melious (http://getwhatcomplanning.blogspot.com/2011/12/birch-bay-cherry-point-kerfuffle.html) Salish Law Policy Solutions (http://www.communitywisebellingham.org/2011/12/important-dec-8-public-hearing-re-cherry-point) Wendy Harris (http://www.nwcitizen.com/entry/county-planning-commission-latest-water-quality-challenge-for-birch-bay-and) and reporter Jeremy Schwartz (Dec. 13; thenorthernlight.com)

Clean Water Lawsuit

Keeping its word, RE Sources initiated a Clean Water Act lawsuit against SSA-GPT for their illegal clearing of trees and damage to wetlands as discussed in prior issues of Whatcom Watch (Sept., Oct.-Nov., 2011). Their posting of Dec. 12, 2011 (http://blog.re-sources.org) explores several of the issues involved, including the ridiculously small penalty that Whatcom County levied when it has declared development moratoria for similar or lesser infractions in other instances. John Stark gave this a little coverage in The Bellingham Herald (Dec. 12, 13) while Jeremy Schwartz at thenorthernlight.com (“RE Sources sues SSA Marine for Clean Water Act violations,” Dec. 14) and Tim Johnson at cascadiaweekly.com (“Ground Disturbance,” Dec. 14) gave it more thorough coverage.

Al Jazeera and Huff Post Visit County

Possibly concerned that mainstream media were not giving the SSA-GPT proposal sufficient attention Al Jazeera and Huffington Post visited our region in November and reported on the coal terminal proposal: Al Jazeera featured several locals including RE Sources’ Matt Krogh and coaltrainfacts.org’s Julie Trimingham as well as SSA’s exec Bob Watters explaining that if “we” (who’s “we”?) don’t take advantage of this opportunity, someone (who?) else will! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xpr9GbX2VcU&feature=share.)

Lynne Peeples published a lengthy article starring baykeeper Krogh, Dan Pike, WWU’s Hart Hodges (also a consultant to SSA-GPT), Bob Watters (echoing the same “inevitability” refrain), Frank James, M.D., and other local and national voices with a video capturing the Buffett-Peabody coal train in Bellingham and a slide show (“Coal Pit To Coal Port” http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/23/coal-port-pacific-northwest-energy-pollution-climate-change_n_1109289.html.)

Lummi and WWU Students Weigh In

The Lummi Nation got its paddle in the controversial waters of Cherry Point with a Dec. 5 Bellingham Herald opinion piece by Merle Jefferson, Sr., a member of its elected governing body and its longtime Natural Resources Department director (http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2011/12/01/v-print/2296638/whatcom-view-lummi-nation-reviewing.html#ixzz1ffr7HcZs.) Critical of the early support for SSA-GPT from some of the Lummi Nation’s neighboring jurisdictions (such as Ferndale), the op-ed enumerates a long list of tribal concerns that will be pursued by its environmental team. Concerns include impacts on fishing treaty rights, hazards to fishers in small craft from gigantic freighters, land traffic interferences by coal trains, and numerous other environmental impacts that threaten the Lummi way of life.

Up on the hill the Western Washington University (WWU) Associated Students (AS) board of directors announced its opposition to the proposed Gateway Pacific shipping terminal Thursday, Dec. 1, after a contentious vote earlier that week. The resolution originated with the Western Action Coalition and cited other regional universities that had passed or were preparing similar resolutions (http://westernfrontonline.net/news/14087-as-board-opposes-terminal-resolution-passes-with-4-3-vote.) Bill McKibben congratulated students for this effort.

Occupy Coal Train Tracks

On Dec. 12 a group of about 100 protestors gathered to blockade BNSF tracks at the C St. and Roeder Ave. crossing. When requested the demonstrators politely unblocked access to a local business and the Bellingham police behaved better than their Seattle counterparts who seem to relish punching out jaywalking teens and pepper-spraying 84 year old grannies peacefully protesting. Twelve protestors locked their necks together while lying on the tracks and were later arrested. This story and its accompanying photo gallery made the Bellingham Herald’s “top stories of the week” on Dec. 18. Their court appearance is scheduled for February, 2012. (Month: 12, Day: 12, Arrested: 12, Court: Feb. 12, 2012, hmmmm) See: http://whatcomactioncoalition.weebly.com and http://occupy-bellingham.org

Terminal Permit Extended a Second Time

December 21, 2011 — The Whatcom County Planning Department has again extended the deadline for supplemental information required under the June 23, 2010 Determination of Incompleteness letter by ninety days to no later than March 19, 2012. The County letter also states: “As you know, the County has been working with co-lead agencies on moving forward with issuing a Request for Proposals to hire a consultant to facilitate the SEPA process. Whatcom County will not be issuing a Determination of Significance, which starts the SEPA process including the scoping phase, until such time that the above referenced permits have been submitted and determined complete.”

The letter also states “this period shall be extended at the applicant’s request in 90-day increments”. We shall see if SSA Marine applies for a further extension and get a good indication of how much difficulty they are having papering their permit application, which after all, is hard to do when what they are proposing is over five times as large a project as originally permitted and almost entirely comprised of a coal facility, which was not contemplated in the original permit.