Submit Coal Train Comments by January 21, 2013

You can still voice your opinion about the proposed coal train and the Gateway Pacific Terminal (at Cherry Point near Bellingham) until January 21. Comments can be submitted online or by [postal] mail.

From http://www.coaltrainfacts.org/key-facts#scoping:
The public will never vote on the GPT project, however, it will have an opportunity to officially express concerns about the proposal during a period called scoping. The scoping period will last for 120 days; beginning on Monday September 24, 2012 and ending on Monday January 21, 2013. Comments made at official sessions or submitted in writing during the scoping process will help inform the type and the geographic scope of impacts to be included in the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). The EIS is the key document for the various agencies and individuals involved with approving or denying permits, permissions and/or leases for the project.
Public Scoping Meetings.
Scoping Comments:
Scoping letters should address which of the project’s potential impacts that should be studied, measured and considered; these letters are not letters of support, protest, or other opinion. Scoping letters are most effective when they outline:

  • specific impacts, how you and others would be affected
  • the significance of those impacts (i.e. permanent and irreparable harm)
  • the direct and indirect costs of those impacts, and who will bear those costs
  • a request for an alternatives analysis (i.e. a “no action” alternative, in which the proposal would be denied; also, what the project with mitigation would look like).

Thoughtful letters by individuals presenting compelling arguments will carry great weight. If you have the time and inclination to draft your own letter, the following guides will be of assistance:<

Comments can be submitted either online or mailed:
Online:
Emails can be sent to: comments@eisgatewaypacificwa.gov
Letters:
Mr. Randel Perry
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Seattle District
Care of: GPT/BNSF Custer Spur EIS Co-Lead Agencies
1100 112th Avenue Northeast, Suite 400
Bellevue, Washington
98004
A website has been set up for a continuous online scoping meeting at www.eisgatewaypacificwa.gov.  You can also view all comments submitted through this website.
Any major development project is subject to an environmental review process required by both the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA). Projects deemed too damaging to the “environment” are not permitted to proceed. More usually, projects are required to mitigate adverse impacts; these impacts are determined by the review process. Scope consists of “the range of actions, alternatives, and impacts to be considered in an environmental impact statement.” Council on Environmental Quality NEPA Regulations, Sec.1508.25, Definition of Scope In this context, “environment” is a term broadly defined, as it encompasses concerns that are chiefly human as well as issues pertaining to land, air and water quality and to ecosystems.
The Army Corps of Engineers is the lead agency conducting the NEPA environmental review for the Gateway Pacific Terminal Project. Whatcom County and the Washington State Department of Ecology are “co-leads” for SEPA. It is expected that there will be a single, joint Environmental Impact Statement, including both NEPA and SEPA, though this is yet to be confirmed.

Geographic Scope:
Whatcom County and the Washington State Department of Ecology are obligated by law SEPA, WAC 197-11-060(4)(b) to consider impacts that might affect areas outside of Whatcom County and/or Washington State as well as areas within the vicinity of the proposed coal port.

The communities close to Cherry Point will be directly impacted by the actual terminal, as communities in the vicinity of other coal terminals have had issues pertaining to coal dust.
The coal ships will navigate through the narrow passages of the Salish Sea, traversing the Cherry Point Aquatic Reserve en route. The vessel traffic and terminal site marine impacts will affect local coastal and island communities; it’s difficult to draw a geographic boundary around the marine ecosystems potentially damaged by vessel traffic impacts and/or possible collision and/or spill impacts.
The rail corridor extends south from the proposed terminal site at Cherry Point, in Whatcom County, down along the Puget Sound coast to Longview, east along the Columbia River, north to Spokane, then across Idaho, and into Montana and Wyoming where the Powder River Basin coal mines are located. Residents and businesses all along this rail corridor could request that impacts to their local economies, public health and quality of life be considered as part of the EIS.
SEPA also mandates that related actions in a comprehensive system be studied: “A large proposal involving actions in vastly different locations, such as material being mined at one site, then transported to and processed at another, is another example of defining the entire proposal. Appropriate environmental review would look at the impacts of all the related activities.

It is important to remember that actions are related if they are dependent on each other, so that one will not happen without the other.” It is uncertain as to whether it will be argued that continued and/or new mining of coal in the Powder River Basin and the future combustion of coal at coal-burning plants currently being built in Asia are activities dependent upon and related to the transport and export of coal to and from the proposed Gateway Pacific Terminal.

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