The state agency that decides major energy projects denied a request on Wednesday that it take over the environmental impact review and permit decisions of two proposed oil-by-rail operations in Grays Harbor County.
In voting unanimously against the request by the Quinault Indian Nation, the Washington Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council sided with attorneys for the proposed Westway and Imperium oil terminals. They’d contended that stripping permit authority from the state Department of Ecology and the city of Hoquiam and handing it instead to the evaluation council would deny the companies’ legal right to move forward with an already well-advanced review process.
But evaluation council members also indicated that state law forced the council to stay out of expressing opinions about whether it has jurisdiction over the fate of the Westway and Imperium proposals.
And the issue may not be over yet.
Bill Lynch, chairman of the council, said the Quinault Indian Nation may still pursue its request in Superior Court. Lynch also said the Quinault tribe could ask the evaluation council to write a rule that more clearly defines when an oil-handling facility is large enough to warrant review by the council.
Kristen Boyles, an attorney with Earthjustice, which represents the Quinault tribe, said Wednesday the tribe has yet to decide its next steps. The state Ecology department and the city of Hoquiam are expected to release draft environmental impact studies of the Westway and Imperium proposals this spring. Once the documents are released, the public will be invited to comment.
By some estimates, the combined projects could move at least 130,000 barrels of crude per day in Grays Harbor, the nation’s fourth-largest estuary.
The Westway and Imperium plans have pitted certain business interests, which promise jobs, against environmental and commercial fishing groups that point to potential ecological damage. The proposals also have raised safety and other concerns in rail-lined communities in Clark County.
Paul Queary, a spokesman for Westway and Imperium — whose proposals involve both rail and marine operations to receive and ship oil — said Wednesday that Imperium attorneys were still reviewing the evaluation council’s decision. He said Westway is pleased with the decision and confident its proposal is receiving a comprehensive environmental review.
Boyles, the Earthjustice attorney, said she’s disappointed the companies refused to allow “a full airing of this issue of the actual size of their proposed operations, and where the jurisdiction should lie.”
State law currently gives energy companies too much room to define the size of their proposed operations, Boyles said, so the evaluation council needs to create a rule that further clarifies its jurisdiction in such matters. But if such a rule was created, she said, it would affect future energy proposals, not the Westway and Imperium proposals.
If the evaluation council had assumed control of the Westway and Imperium evaluations, it would have taken building-permit authority away from the state Department of Ecology and the city of Hoquiam. The council would have made a recommendation to Washington’s governor, who would then approve, deny or send the project back to the council for more work.
That’s the process being used in Vancouver, where Tesoro Corp. and Savage Companies want to build an oil-by-rail terminal receiving an average 360,000 barrels of crude per day at the Port of Vancouver. The evaluation council is expected to release the draft impact analysis of that proposal in May for public comment. As to the Westway and Imperium proposals, the petition filed Oct. 31 by Boyles, the Earthjustice attorney, said a review led by the evaluation council would provide a more rigorous inspection of the two oil-train projects. Such a study, Boyles said, would include more opportunity for public comments.
However, Westway and Imperium argued that re-assigning permitting authority would prompt costly delays. “The capacity of the proposed facility expansion is not above the threshold that prompts” review by the evaluation council, according to Imperium.
The energy projects over which the siting council has jurisdiction include facilities large enough to receive more than an average of 50,000 barrels of crude per day.
Imperium Terminal Services, which runs a biodiesel fuel operation, seeks to also receive, store and ship oil and other liquid bulk materials. Westway wants to add oil transfer operations to its methanol storage facility at the Port of Grays Harbor’s Terminal 1. Imperium’s current operation is just west of Westway’s existing terminal.
A third oil-by-rail terminal also is proposed for Grays Harbor County. Grays Harbor Rail Terminal LLC, a subsidiary of U.S. Development Group, wants to build a rail-to-marine transfer facility handling 45,000 barrels per day of liquid bulk materials, including crude.
The draft impact analysis of that proposal is expected to be released for public comment either by December of this year or by March 2016, according to Fran Sant, environmental review coordinator for Ecology.
