I have lived in Clark County since 1986. During that time, I have attended many city council hearings on many topics, from how do we fund our parks, to what do we do to help house the homeless, to how do we find funding for community centers, to how do we fund our libraries? The attendance at the Vancouver City Council debate on the oil trains and the vote to pass a resolution to oppose the terminal is the largest attendance I have ever seen at a council hearing. I applaud both the pro and con persons who attended this hearing and voiced their views.
Many topics were covered. The one that I would like to share is “these trains are going to come through here anyway” view. Yes, that is true. However, no terminal means they would not be backed up waiting to offload their cargo to the terminal, with lines of trains that might extend from the Port of Vancouver terminal all the way to the waterfront area near the Columbia Shores complex. Do we want 200 oil cars lined up, waiting to offload, with the risks associated with some of those cars directly over the Interstate 5 overpass for an hour or more?
I am hopeful that the governor, after hearing and reading the report from the Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council, will deny this application.
Greg Flakus
Vancouver
