The latest group to go public with its opposition to new oil terminals in Washington is a diverse group including firefighters, physicians and neighborhood association leaders.
In a letter to Gov. Jay Inslee on Friday, the coalition urged the governor to stop the proposed oil terminals in Vancouver and Grays Harbor and prevent the expansion of oil refineries in Anacortes.
“We are asking you to follow through on your commitment to a clean energy future and a robust sustainable economy by denying their permitting and construction,” the letter to Inslee reads.
Geoff Simpson, a firefighter with the Kent Fire Department, said the letter was a result of meeting with a variety of people from those in the fishing industry to farmers to union representatives.
“We learned a lot from each other and universally everyone is really concerned about the potential for disaster here in Washington,” Simpson said.
Eric LaBrant, president of the Fruit Valley Neighborhood Association in Vancouver, said he signed the letter, in part, to highlight his neighborhood’s primary concern: projected emissions.
Fruit Valley neighborhood is located next to the Port of Vancouver.
“Certainly the Vancouver oil terminal proposal, in particular, involves a lot of toxic air pollutants and these are going to have a cumulative impact for the people living right there,” LaBrant said.
Projected emissions could include nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, arsenic, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, benzene and diesel engine particulate.
LaBrant said environmental concerns, such as impacts from a spill, drown out a lot of other pressing issues facing opponents of the proposed oil-by-rail terminal in Vancouver.
“If you watch the news, this discussion about oil trains is dominated by environmental concerns versus economic concerns, and it’s really a much more complicated issue than that,” LaBrant said.
At the end of the letter, the group requested to meet with the governor.
“The governor’s long-standing concern about the safety of the growth of crude by rail activity in Washington is well known,” Jaime Smith, the governor’s spokeswoman, wrote in an email on Friday.
Inslee has called on the federal government to lower the speed limit for trains carrying crude oil and accelerate the replacing of outdated cars.
The governor is also expected to unveil draft legislation for the 2015 session aimed at improving safety conditions and the state’s ability to respond to spills.
The Washington State Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council will review the Tesoro Corp. and Savage Companies’ oil-by-rail transfer terminal proposed for Vancouver and make a recommendation to the governor, who has the ultimate say over the project’s future.
“The proposed Vancouver facility, as you know, is under the jurisdiction of EFSEC and in that process the governor serves as the final decision-maker,” Smith wrote. “EFSEC produces a record that is the basis for any decision made by the governor. The governor must — and will — remain neutral on these types of projects until EFSEC provides that record.”
