Westway Terminals and Imperium Renewables are asking the Washington state Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council to stay out of permit decisions concerning their proposals to build oil-by-rail projects at the Port of Grays Harbor.
The companies’ separate requests, filed last week with the evaluation council, are in response to a petition filed by Earthjustice on behalf of the Quinault Indian Nation. That petition calls on the evaluation council to assume control over the fate of the two oil-train proposals.
The evaluation council agreed in November to consider the petition, including taking written and oral arguments in a process that could stretch to early February. If the council agrees to take over the environmental review and permit decisions, it would mean that the state Department of Ecology and the city of Hoquiam would no longer have authority over building permits.
However, Westway and Imperium have raised several objections, including 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.
In Earthjustice’s petition, filed on Oct. 31, the group argues, in part, that because the Westway and Imperium proposals are being pursued at the same time in nearby locations, “it is important that a statewide agency consider the aggregate effects of the increased rail and marine traffic and likelihood of oil spills.”
By some estimates, the combined Westway and Imperium projects could move at least 130,000 barrels of crude per day in Grays Harbor, the fourth-largest estuary in the United States.
The Westway and Imperium plans have pitted certain business interests, which tout new jobs and tax revenues, against environmental and commercial fishing groups that point to potential ecological and economic damages.
Responses to the objections filed by Westway and Imperium may be filed by Dec. 22. Oral arguments are slated for Feb. 2.
The Columbian contributed to this report.
