Several hundred people packed the Kalama High School gym for a hearing on a draft environmental report for a $1.8 billion methanol plant proposed at the Port of Kalama.
Chinese-backed Northwest Innovation Works wants to invest $7 billion to build a trio of methanol plants in Kalama, Clatskanie and Tacoma. The refineries would convert natural gas to methanol, which would be shipped to Asia to make olefins, a key component in plastics.
On Tuesday night, the crowd was evenly split in their feelings about the project. Both sides waxed poetic about economic development and environmental factors to argue their points.
Most speakers were from Cowlitz County, although some traveled from Tacoma, Portland and Vancouver.
Red and green shirts dotted the crowd, signifying opposition and support, respectively, for the project. Audience members were told to leave their signs outside and to remain silent during public comments, which stretched for the entire three-hour public hearing. Yet the crowd made their opinions known with hand signals such as wiggling fingers and giving a thumbs up or thumbs down.
The hearing was relatively tame, although the audience erupted into jeers after a Tacoma activist got into a verbal argument with supporters of the project and used a hand gesture of her own to show them how she felt.
“We drove Northwest Innovation Works out of Tacoma and we will not stop fighting,” said Roxanne Murray. She said she was concerned about the plant’s water requirements and the risk of spills. “If there is a mess, they are not liable to clean up.”
The plant would use 4.8 million gallons of water a day from a well tapped into an aquifer where the Port of Kalama has water rights. The city of Kalama would supply 5,600 gallons a day, a small sliver of the 845,000 gallons a day the city projects to use by 2020.
Opponents balked at the high water use.
“What a disgusting waste of a valuable resource … turning water into methanol and then into plastic,” said Linda Horst of Kelso. “Why would we allow a foreign government to squander our resources and to pollute our water?”
Opponents also called the draft environmental impact statement incomplete because it didn’t address carbon emissions from the point of natural gas extraction to the delivery of the final plastic products to customers.
Gregory Monahan of Portland said the plant would lead to a “measurable contribution to greenhouse gases … this is the reason that I, as an outsider, feel entitled and compelled to speak out against this project.”
The plant would emit 1.24 million tons to 1.53 million tons of greenhouse gases annually, depending on the method used. That’s equivalent to the annual carbon emission of 250,000 to 325,000 cars.
Northwest Innovation has proposed using an ultra-low emissions technology that would further decrease greenhouse gas emissions. Supporters raved about the project’s greener approach to producing methanol compared to coal alternatives.
“First of all, don’t lump all fossil-fuel projects together. They’re not all the same,” said Jim Baine of Kalama. “This is a different project.”
“This facility can be built without disruption to traffic, air or groundwater,” said Rep. Ed Orcutt, R-Kalama. “I think the amount of revenue that’s going to be generated by this is going to outweigh the costs.”
Supporters also highlighted the economic stimulus the plant would inject into the community.
“As a single mother, projects like these bring family-wage jobs … to help continue to support myself as a mother,” said Bree Smith of Vancouver.
Representatives from local construction unions and the longshore union voiced their support of the project. The refinery would create about 1,000 construction jobs and 192 jobs during operation.
“More important than the construction jobs is the … ripple through the economy and multiplier that is going to happen,” said Mike Bridges of the Longview Kelso Buildings Trade Council.
“We need these opportunities for our young people.”
One of the younger audience members disagreed.
“The proposed project would change my water, my air and my life,” said 14-year old Cambria Keely of Kalama. She raised concerns about toxins in air and water and their potential effects on the fishing industry. “I’m asking you to take the no-action policy.”
The public has until April 18 to submit comments on the draft environmental impact statement. Co-lead agencies Cowlitz County and the Port of Kalama will then collect comments and draft a final environmental impact statement. There are no time estimates for how long that would take.
Northwest Innovation has to get 18 permits before it can get a green light to build the plant. However, the company says it hopes to start construction by late 2016.
