By Sophie Williams

Special to the Islands’ Weekly

If built, the Gateway Pacific Terminal will be the largest coal export terminal in North America. Tucked in the Cherry Point aquatic reserve between two oil refineries and an aluminum smelter, the new terminal will export 48 million tons of coal, as well as 6 million tons of other dry bulk materials annually.

While the communities near Cherry Point will bear the brunt of the terminal’s economic, environmental and health impacts, this coal’s story is far longer than its port of exit. It begins in the strip mines of the Powder River Basin, where the government leases coal from public lands for next to nothing. It travels across the West in open rail cars, trailing coal dust and diesel fumes. At Cherry Point it stops in uncovered mountains of coal on top of 80 acres of in-filled wetlands, before heading out through the Straits of Georgia and Juan de Fuca in huge cargo ships. The coal burns in China’s coal power plants, releasing greenhouse gasses and pollutants that drift back across the Pacific and onto our shores. The electricity also returns to the USA in the form of plastic consumer items: an incredible 70 percent of China’s electricity consumption is in industry.

Before they can build the Gateway Pacific Terminal, SSA Marine and its partners need development permits from the Whatcom County Council, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers. Before it can be permitted, the project must undergo a full environmental review so the public and the permitting agencies have a clear understanding of the project’s impacts.

The Environmental Impact Statement is a study of the terminal’s environmental, health and economic impacts. It also proposes “reasonable alternatives” to minimize the project’s adverse effects. Reasonable alternatives can range from wetland mitigation to a rejection of the proposal, called the ‘no action alternative.’

A a much smaller export terminal was approved by Whatcom County in 1997, so ‘no action’ still allows SSA Marine to build at Cherry Point, albeit at only 15 percent of the cargo capacity and with less than a third of the shipping traffic.

The EIS is co-led by Whatcom County and the Washington Department of Ecology to ensure that it looks at both local and statewide issues. Counties all along the coal train route are already clamoring to make their voices heard.

The first step of the EIS process is to determine the scope of the study. Scoping, which begins in June 2012, is a chance for the public, tribes, citizen groups, local government, and state and federal agencies to ask for impacts and geographic areas important to them to be included in the EIS.

Though separated by the Strait of Georgia, the islands will still feel the impact of the Gateway Pacific Terminal in the disruption of the Cherry Point Pacific herring, which spawn in the Cherry Point aquatic reserve and are a critical element of the marine food web, in increased boat traffic and the corresponding increased risk of oil spills, and in the marine invasives that are sure to follow the ships in from international waters. To make the terminal’s impacts on the San Juans part of the decision making process, our waters and waterways must be within the scope of the EIS.

This is no small project, building the largest coal export terminal in North America. Take a hard look at the Gateway Pacific Terminal project proposal. If you have concerns, the EIS scoping is your chance to add your voice, and the voice of the islands, to the decision making process.

What will you get from the Gateway Pacific Terminal, and what will you lose?

To be notified of actions by Whatcom County Planning and Development Services regarding Gateway Pacific Terminal, send an e-mail to pds@co.whatcom.wa.us and type “GPT Subscriber List” in the subject line.

There is a pre-scoping meeting to explain the scoping process on March 20, 6-8pm, in the Bellingham High School theater, 2020 Cornwall Ave.