Coal terminals in our backyard? | Letter
Published 4:34 pm Monday, February 27, 2012
Arch Coal and Peabody, along with Australian-based Ambre Energy are proposing large coal export terminals to ship coal to Asia. The terminals would be located on the coasts of Oregon and in Washington at Cherry Point (north of Bellingham), Longview, and Grays Harbor.
If approved, the terminals will cause great harm to our environment, health, economy and quality of life. The proposed site at Cherry Point would span 1,200 acres, fill 131 acres of wetlands and sit directly on herring grounds, which is a primary food source for chinook salmon.
Strip-mined in Wyoming and Montana, then moved by rail through Washington and Oregon, coal is loaded on the world’s largest ships to Asia destroying rangeland, habitat, polluting the water, and worsening the climate crisis along the way.
Five hundred pounds of coal dust can be lost from each rail car, which can cause serious health problems like lung and heart disease and cancer. Communities could see 20+ coal trains through town every day. Toxic and heavy metals (mercury) would pollute our air and water.
There will be an additional 400+ ships per year, taking 48 million tons of coal to Asia and burning tons of diesel adding to the air pollution of the coal dust. The ships would clog the Straits of San Juan de Fuca and Georgia. Several ships require that their ballast water be exchanged which will be discharged into our waters. Carried in this water are plants, animals, bacteria, and pathogens. These organisms have the potential to become aquatic nuisance species (ANS) which may displace native species, degrade native habitats, spread disease, and disrupt human social and economic activities that depend on water resources.
Coal is a dirty fuel which will poison our air, water, fish and food supply! I don’t want coal in our backyard, much less anywhere in our world, do you? You may as well kiss fishing goodbye, let alone being able to live and breathe.
For more information and to sign the petition for “No More Coal,” please go to www.powerpastcoal.org.
Toni Bailey
Friday Harbor
