Millennium Bulk Terminal Sues State Pt 1
I'm Bob Larson. Call it the next logical step for a company unsatisfied with the way Washington state agencies try derailing their efforts to create a major export terminal in Longview. Owners of Millennium Bulk Terminal filed a federal lawsuit against the state.Washington Farm Bureau president John Stuhlmiller says in its recent denial of water quality permits, the state should ask what does the law require?
JOHN STUHLMILLER ... "It requires you, to have a project go forward, you have to meet, if you will, the minimum criteria to not, in this case, harm the shorelines, right? And so, it's got some criteria that you can follow. Unfortunately, that criteria is not a fixed criteria anymore."
Stuhlmiller says Millennium has mitigated for every possible concern on the permits...
JOHN STUHLMILLER ... "We're not even talking about that. What we're talking about is the commerce in and the commerce both ways. Literally, they say, too much ocean transportation increase and too much rail traffic increase.
If you have a project that is commercially viable, it's going to bring more business in."
Stuhlmiller says that's why you start a business in the first place ...
JOHN STUHLMILLER ... "You know, if you have, whatever it is, you're going to see more customers, you're going more, that's why you do a business is to make some product of value or have some thing of value that you add and the impact is people go to your store and buy things or a product comes through and you ship it through in a container, whatever it may be."
Tune in tomorrow for more on the lawsuit and why the project should move forward.