The building of a large methanol refinery in Kalama is still undergoing environmental review. And while its effects on our community in Vancouver include a significant drain on our current natural gas supply from Canada (the plant would consume far more gas than Seattle, Portland, Bellingham, Tacoma, Spokane, and Vancouver combined) and the dangerous risk of methane leakage both from the facility and from the lengthy transportation routes serving it, the plant also would drain enormous amounts of water out of the Columbia and Kalama rivers aquifers (the plant would use 5 million gallons of water daily).
That’s too much water, too much natural gas, too much methane, too much damage to the air, and above all, too much damage to a climate that needs to cool down. I hope that for our sake here in Vancouver, Gov. Jay Inslee will not approve the construction and operation of the methanol plant in Kalama.
