The Columbia River may be many miles away from my San Juan Islands home, but we are connected by the endangered southern resident killer whales, aka orcas. Our islands’ icons swim that distance for sustenance — Columbia chinook salmon (also listed as endangered).
The proposed coal export terminal in Longview, if approved, would increase the number of vessels navigating the Columbia to and from Asia. Any increase in ships, and their hazardous cargo and fuel, elevates the risk of accidents and spills in the river and surrounding coastal waters — salmon waters — further jeopardizing the orcas’ fragile existence.
In San Juan County, our tourism economy and island way of life are inseparable from the fate of the orcas. To us, protecting them is both a federal and personal mandate.
The draft environmental impact statement, barely mentioning the orcas, does reveal a multitude of adverse impacts to chinook salmon as a result of this project. Therefore, concerned islanders request a “no-action alternative” because what happens on the Columbia River happens to our islands, only an orca’s swim away.
