Washingtonians Get Chance to Weigh In On Coal Train Export Plan

 

 

By Wendy Culverwell

May 31, 2016 - A proposed coal export terminal at Longview could have implications for the Tri-City economy and environment.

More than 217,000 Washingtonians have weighed in on the Millennium Bulk Terminals plan to export coal from Longview since the plan was first disclosed in 2012.

Now, it's time for Tri-City residents to share their views on a project that could add 16 coal trains on local tracks every day.

The Washington Department of Ecology and Cowlitz County released a draft environmental impact statement on the Millennium project in April. The last in a series of public hearings and open houses will happen in Pasco, with hearings set for 1 to 4 p.m. and 5 to 9 p.m.June 2 at the TRAC center, 6600 Burden Blvd. A similar event Thursday in Spokane drew hundreds of supporters and opponents.

The draft of the environmental impact statement covers a wide range of potential impacts, including the environmental cost to mine coal in North America and to burn it at power plants in Asia. Locally, the project is viewed chiefly as a new business line for a major local employer with the potential to slow traffic at rail crossings and result in more horn blasts.

Public comment will be accepted through June 13 and will guide if Millennium Bulk Terminals gets the green light to proceed with its $680 million plan to turn land at a 1940s era aluminum smelter on the Columbia River into a coal export facility.

Opposition has been in fierce in western Washington, where opponents have battled Millennium and other coal projects on climate change grounds. Reaction is muted and generally supportive in the Tri-Cities.

The Benton and Franklin county commissions both endorsed the project, as did the Port of Pasco Commission, Pasco Chamber of Commerce and Washington Farm Bureau. All cited jobs, infrastructure investment and the important role BNSF Railway Co. plays in the local economy.

Pasco has historically been a railroad town. Jim Klindworth, Port of Pasco commissioner

Millennium Bulk Terminals is a chance to secure a major employer and taxpayer for Washington state and to support a company that's been good to this region, said Port of Pasco Commissioner Jim Klindworth.

"Pasco has historically been a railroad town," he said.

Randy Hayden, the port's executive director, said transportation investments are critical. Port operators are more concerned with transportation than what is being transported.

The Millennium project is advertised as a coal export facility but future phases could add capacity to handle bulk commodities such as grain. In the interim, local supporters say upgrades to local train tracks will benefit not only coal but other goods that move by rail.

"We think it's good for our region's agricultural producers," Hayden said.

BNSF will carry coal from the Powder River Basin mines of Montana and Wyoming to Longview by way of Pasco, where the railroad employs 250 at its largest regional hump yard. A hump yard is where trains are assembled based on the destinations of various cars. Coal generally travels in a unit train of 100 or so cars and isn't broken down between mine and port.

Still, Fort Worth, Texas-based BNSF is spending heavily in Pasco to prepare for the increase in coal traffic. It currently handles about two trains a day. In 2015, it wrapped up a $26 million project that added a third main line through the hump yard and a station where coal loads and petroleum coke products are sprayed with a topping agent meant to prevent coal dust issues.

The Pasco yard is incredibly important, said Ajsa Suljic, regional labor economist for the Washington Employment Security Department. Railroad jobs pay well, are stable and demand specialized skills.

"Individuals who get those jobs tend to value them," she said.

The Proposal

Millennium Bulk Terminals Longview would receive up to 44 million metric tons of coal by rail from the Powder River Basin in Montana and Wyoming as well as the Uinta Basin in Utah and Colorado. Coal would be unloaded from trains, processed and loaded to vessels headed to Taiwan, Japan, Korea and other customers.

As of this week, Millennium Bulk Terminals Longview is fully owned by Lighthouse Resources Inc. after its purchase of Arch Coal's 38 percent stake. Arch will be a customer for the terminal.

Millennium Bulk has a long-term lease for 530 acres at Longview with Alcoa, whose predecessor Reynolds Aluminum operated a smelter there until 2001. The company is working to clean up site contamination, which is not part of the environmental impact statement process.

250 Number of employees at BNSF's largest regional hump yard in Pasco

The coal export project will occupy 190 acres and entails two new marine berths. The balance of the land and an existing berth could be leased to an operator for other bulk commodities in the future.

Millennium will operate the terminal and has agreements with 15 labor unions including the International Longshoremen's Association, the union that represents maritime workers throughout the country.. At full operations, the terminal will employ 135 and pay $16 million in annual wages. Secondary spending will push the job impact to about 300.

Wendy Hutchinson, vice president for public affairs, said the primary benefits to upriver communities will be the railroad investment in its own infrastructure, which helps all products.

She called the coal terminal a logical outcome of the regional investment in deepening the Columbia River navigation channel so the new generation of deeper ships can continue to call on upriver ports.

Public hearing on coal train export plan is 1 to 4 p.m. and 5 to 9 p.m.June 2 at the TRAC center, 6600 Burden Blvd., Pasco.

"Bulk commodities have to get to those ports and they come by unit trains. That was the whole purpose of deepening the river," she said.

Japan would be a major customer for coal moving through the Millennium Bulk network. Japan moved away from nuclear power following the 2011 tsunami and Fukushima nuclear disaster. It is constructing more than 40 high-efficiency coal plants to replace the lost power and must import the fuel to power the plants.

A red and white crane hovering over Pasco speaks to Japan's shift from nuclear to coal. Kennewick-based Lampson Inc. built the crane for Hitachi Ltc., which intended to use it to build power plants in Japan. After the disaster, Hitachi declined to take delivery and Lampson is housing the fully-assembled Transi-Lift crane at Pasco. A Lampson spokeswoman confirmed the two companies are cooperating to find work for the crane, which has a lift capacity of 3,000 U.S. tons.

The Tri-City Argument

Tri-City leaders largely sidestep the coal question. Instead, they support Millennium Bulk Terminals because it will be a major customer for a major local employer: BNSF. And because it expands Washington's export infrastructure.

There's also a sense of resignation that coal will move to Asia whether it passes through Longview or some Canadian port.

"The train is going to come through here whether they go to Longview or to Vancouver, British Columbia," said Franklin County Commissioner Bob Koch. Commissioner Jean Ryckman concurred, saying Washington should get the benefits if it's going to get the trains anyway.

Eric de Place, policy director for the Sightline Institute, a Seattle environmental think tank, said that's a false argument. British Columbia's one major port is at capacity and opposition to a second is fierce.

If Millennium Bulk is not approved, coal won't move through Washington, he said. It's "completely false" that it will just go to Canada if Longview falls through.

Hayden, of the Port of Pasco, said whether Millennium Bulk Terminals handles coal or another dry bulk product such as wheat, it's important to Washington's export-dependent economy.

 

 

"We support that infrastructure because it helps all of us," he said.