Environmental Review For Proposed Coal Export Terminal

I'm Lacy Gray with Washington Ag Today.

On Wednesday Cowlitz County and the Washington State Department of Ecology announced their scoping decision for the State Environmental Policy Act environmental review and released a scoping summary report that categorizes and summarizes the 215 thousand comments received during the recent 95 day scoping phase of the proposed Millennium Bulk Terminals-Longview coal export project. Elaine Placido, Cowlitz County Director of building and planning, explains what the next step will be.

PLACIDO: We are now starting the study phase. This is where we do work to gather information and find the answers to the questions raised during scoping. We'll be working hard in coming months using good science and thorough analysis to find answers. All of this information will go into a draft environmental impact statement.

Placido says that Cowlitz County and Ecology have directed the consultant hired for this work to focus the most detailed study on potential impacts on health and low income communities within Cowlitz County. Human health and greenhouse gas emission impacts will also be studied along the transportation routes in Washington. Impacts outside of state boundaries will also be discussed in the environmental impact statement. Both Ecology and Cowlitz County view the increase of 16 train trips per day in and out of Cowlitz County and the increase of 140 ship transits per month in the Columbia River as a potentially significant adverse impact.

PLACIDO: We look forward to learning more as we carry out the technical assessment of probable impacts. We will ask for feedback again when the draft environmental impact statement is complete.

For more information visit millenniumbulkeiswa.gov.

That's Washington Ag Today.

I'm Lacy Gray on the Ag Information Network.