I was among dozens of people not given time to speak at the Port of Vancouver commissioners meeting regarding the proposed oil terminal. While there was unanimity in the testimony against the project, the people cited noble causes such as quality of life and protecting the environment as well as our health.
If money is the driving factor, I hope the Pacific Wood Treating plant in Ridgefield has not been forgotten. It provided 400 “good-paying” jobs for years, but in 1993 it went bankrupt leaving an environmental mess that has cost $70 million that Washington citizens had to pay for the cleanup. That cleanup was completed last month, some 20 years later.
Ridgefield is much smaller than Vancouver. How much money will it take to clean up a Vancouver oil or coal dump after an earthquake, negligence, and/or accident? How long will the port be unusable? How long until we see our fish runs return?
Accidents will happen despite our best efforts: people are imperfect. We do not need to sow the seeds for our own demise by establishing coal or oil terminals; we should be leading the world in the manufacturing of solar and wind energy implements.
