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Tuesday, March 19, 2024
March 19, 2024

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Oregon LNG sues for right to build terminal

The Columbian
Published:

WARRENTON, Ore. — The proposed Oregon Liquefied Natural Gas terminal in Warrenton near the mouth of Columbia River is faced with another roadblock and may not have access to the land where it proposes to build its terminal.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has an easement over the terminal site for disposing dredge spoils. Oregon LNG has sued the Army Corps for access to the land, according to court filings discovered by Columbia Riverkeeper, an advocacy group opposed to the project.

The lawsuit is pending, and the resolution may decide the fate of the LNG export terminal, Columbia Riverkeeper Conservation Director Dan Serres said.

“If the Corps is unwilling to release its easement, Oregon LNG will not have a place to build,” Serres said. “What they do to try to resolve that problem is anyone’s guess.”

Serres said his advocacy group came across the lawsuit while digging up other information to comment on a separate Army Corps dredging project. The Columbia Riverkeeper group wonders why this fundamental land’s rights issue was not brought up a decade ago when Oregon LNG signed a lease for the property.

“Columbia Riverkeeper and people in the estuary had been pointing to the fundamental flaws from a bunch of different perspectives,” Serres said. “The fact that the Army Corps is now weighing in is unexpected.”

Oregon LNG did not respond when contacted by The Daily Astorian.

The pending lawsuit comes after Oregon LNG learned of another hurdle last week.

The Oregon Court of Appeals ruled last week in favor of Clatsop County, upholding its decision to deny a key permit for the Oregon LNG pipeline to the terminal.

Oregon LNG challenged the county’s decision Oct. 18, 2013, to deny the permit on the grounds of bias, but the Court of Appeals sided with the county.

The Army Corps originally received an easement in 1957 to dump dredge spoils on the East Skipanon Peninsula in Warrenton, which is exactly where the LNG terminal is proposed.

Hundreds of salmon fishermen, sailors and commercial fishermen keep boats in marinas on the Skipanon Peninsula, Columbia Riverkeeper said.

“We’re pleased that the Corps is standing up to protect access to the Columbia River,” Brett VandenHeuvel, executive director of Columbia Riverkeeper, said in a news release. “It’s simple, you cannot build a massive LNG terminal where the federal government has an easement to deposit dredge spoils. In addition, siting a massive LNG terminal in the heart of the Columbia River’s most productive salmon fishery is a huge mistake.”

According to the Columbia Riverkeeper findings:

Legal proceedings about this easement began in August when Oregon LNG filed a Quiet Title action in federal district court against the Army Corp.

The Corps filed a motion to dismiss in November. Oregon LNG filed an amended complaint in December.

The land is owned by the state of Oregon, which issued a lease to the Port of Astoria, who in turn subleased the land to Oregon LNG.

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