The proposed Cherry Point Coal Terminal near Ferndale, Wash., has been causing an outcry on the islands, but local conservationists are concerned about multiple hazards.

Nationwide environmentalist have applauded President Barack Obama’s refusal so far to authorize TransCanada proposed 1,179-mile Keystone XL pipeline running from Alberta to Nebraska, but stopping the pipeline wouldn’t necessarily mean stopping the potential risk to the island ecosystem. More tar sands may be exported through the Salish Sea instead of  the pipeline, according to Chom Greacen of Islands Energy Coalition, a Lopez-based organization advocating for local and sustainable energy.

“If the fossil fuel industry has its way, the risk of major oil spills will grow significantly as plans are underway to make the Salish Sea a major tanker highway for exporting coal and tar sands oil to Asia,” Greacen said. “Now our Salish Sea and the Strait of Juan de Fuca are seen by the tar sand industry as an attractive gateway to export this excess oil to Asia. In fact, it’s already been happening.”

She is referring to Kinder Morgan’s 714-mile “Trans-Mountain” oil pipeline from Alberta to Vancouver, B.C., with its smaller pipeline tapping off from the main trunk to Anacortes. The line provides the only access for Canadian oil to reach the West Coast of the United States.

The system is currently capable of carrying 300,000 barrels a day and Kinder Morgan has announced plans to double that to 750,000 barrels a day.

America’s main and growing source of oil imports is from Canada, even surpassing the Middle East and Mexico, according to the Department of Energy. More than half of the Canadian oil production in 2010 was from tar sands – a sticky tar-like form of crude oil mixed with sand and clay in Alberta, and one of the largest remaining deposits of oil in the world.

Already very large, the tar sands crude production is expected to grow 150 percent by 2025, according to the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers. The association has also said that the Canadian oil industry is in an “oversupply” situation and looking for an “outlet.”

This, combined with plans by SSA Marine – a division of the world’s largest cargo terminal operator Carrix – which recently filed an application to build North America’s largest coal export at Cherry Point, is causing concern on the islands that more exports could lead to more environmental hazards.

Greacen said oil tankers from Vancouver would skirt Waldron, Stuart and San Juan Islands on the west, while coal shipping vessels would come down the Rosario Strait east of Orcas and Lopez, before heading out to the Pacific Ocean.

Locals fear a spill like the oil platform explosion that fouled the Gulf of Mexico in 2010.

“When the Gulf spill happened, we had days before any of the oil came to any shore,” said San Juan County Councilwoman Lovel Pratt, in a recent commentary in the Huffington Post. “Here, we would have hours. And we’re dealing with the unique challenges of our ecology and geography that includes so much coastline and sensitive ecosystems.”

Friends of the San Juans, an environmental advocacy group, is concerned about not just potential impacts tio the ecosystem, but the threat to the local economy.

“Our islands are an international destination and a national treasure,” said the Friends in a press release. ”The 750,000 visitors that contribute $51 million to our local economy annually come up here to see wildlife, not tanker ships full of coal.”

Threat or not?

Stephanie Buffum, director of Friends, said there are major issues when it comes to ships carrying tar sand and coal, including safety of recreational boaters, threat of an oil spill, and the negative effects for marine life of ballast water and noise.

But others say that concerns over potential tanker oil spills are overstated.

The number of maritime oil spills over the last 30 years declined from a high of 18 in the 1980s to six during the 1990s, to none in the 2000s, according to Brian Lee Crowley, managing director of the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, and Jason Clemens, director of research.

They are co-editors of “Making Oil and Water Mix: Oil Tanker Traffic on Canada’s West Coast.”

Spokesmen from SS Marine and Kinder Morgan have made public claims that they have a safety plan and a good record when it comes to keeping oil in their tankers.

While the majority of letters in the Sounder have been against the increase of coal and oil exports through the San Juans, local resident Jake Jacobus is concerned that people are not advocating for a healthier economy.

“We have groups here that would prohibit coal trains, ships in our waters, construction of a shipping terminal and some that would even de-industrialize our country,” he wrote in a letter (May 2, Sounder edition). “All the activities they seek to stop would produce jobs and revenues for our communities.”

For Greacen, there is still cause to worry. The fact that the Salish Sea straddles the U.S.-Canada border makes matters more complicated because ships that are coming out of Canada and not stopping in a U.S. Port, provide Washington state with no  jurisdiction.

Greacen said Kinder Morgan has yet to file an application with the Canadian National Energy Board to expand its pipeline.

“There is still a window of opportunity to make our voice heard,” she added. “Write Gov. Christine Gregoire. Talk to your neighbors. Mobilize. Drive less. Hopefully, the project to expand pipeline capacity to export tar sands crude via the Salish Sea will not go forward. Nor will the coal export.”

For info about coal-related projects, visit www.powerpastcoal.org, www.re-sources.org and www.cowaltrainfacts.org.

For the tar sands/tanker-related issues visit wildernesscommittee.org/tankers or www.re-sources.org/programs/baykeeper/oil.