Community Commentary: Benton too quick to support terminal
It was interesting to note in the Tri-City Herald that our county commissioners, for both Benton and Franklin counties, supported the Bulk Millennium Terminal in Longview on consent agendas, apparently without discussion. Reporting from last Sunday’s paper identified the commissioners’ reasons: increased jobs and rail infrastructure development.
It’s not clear how closely commissioners examined the admittedly lengthy Draft Environmental Impact Statement (milliennium bulkwa.gov) recently released by the Washington Department of Ecology, and if they considered the negative impacts increased coal train traffic might have on our community.
Brief background: Because natural gas (from fracking) significantly reduced markets in the eastern U.S., Arch Coal and Peabody Coal (now both filing for bankruptcy) proposed building a terminal in Longview to transfer and ship 44 million tons of coal a year (mined in Wyoming, Montana and Utah) to supposedly lucrative Asian markets.
Initially, according to the Proposed Action in the DEIS (S-6), 16 mile-long trains would transit Washington each day — eight loaded ones traveling from Spokane through the Tri-Cities and then down the Columbia Gorge to Longview; eight unloaded trains returning through Stampede Pass, down the Yakima Valley, the Tri-Cities, and back through Spokane.
This is expected to create 135 permanent jobs in Longview; this project, if it remains viable, would also fill shareholders and private investors’ pockets with millions of dollars.
This project, however, according to the DEIS, would have at least two “Unavoidable and Significant Adverse Environmental Impact(s)” in Longview that can be directly applied the Tri-Cities:
First, with the mile-long coal trains, the DEIS notes significant delays would occur at at-grade railroad crossings. In Cowlitz County, there would be six such crossings. In Benton County alone, there would almost double that amount: loaded coal trains would block seven crossings paralleling Highway 397, with the heaviest traffic at Finley Road; unloaded trains would block at least fourcrossings beginning at Leslie Road, then Kellogg Street, Edison Street and all the downtown crossings.
A mile-long train would delay traffic the equivalent of two or three red lights at each crossing. This would significantly affect north-south traffic in Kennewick.
These mile-long trains would essentially place a tax on all drivers at these crossings. A tax of time and a tax of inconvenience. During the next 20 years, hundreds of thousands of hours of Kennewick residents would be taxed by coal interests. For what benefit? A few jobs and big money in millionaires’ pockets.
These long coal trains could block Kellogg and Edison streets simultaneously, possibly forcing ambulances and fire trucks to divert to Columbia Center Boulevard or Union Street. And we all know response time is crucial.
The DEIS identifies another “Unavoidable and Significant Impact”: noise. Absent a federally approved Quiet Zone, Longview residents within one mile of the tracks will have to endure a significant increase in the number of train whistles. This applies equally to Kennewick and Pasco. The DEIS estimates a long-term cumulative effect (to 2038) that nearly 48 returning trains a day could be traversing Kennewick, meaning train whistles every 30 minutes, at every crossing, daily, for decades. For Pasco, with a projected 138 daily trains, it would be every 10 minutes.
Is this the lifestyle we want for our community? Clogged streets and incessant noise?
And this doesn’t even speak to the local cost of a derailment.
Or the 37 million metric tons of carbon emissions released each year from this coal.
Or (as Montana farmers testified in Washington, D.C. in 2014) how Burlington Northern Santa Fe seems to give priority rail access to lucrative coal and oil shipments over grain and fruit shipments, resulting in spoiled product, late-arrival penalties, lost income for the growers.
Our local leaders are busy — they do have full agendas — but they should note why other city councils and county commissioners — from Spokane to Stevenson — nearly all oppose the terminal.
Before we find ourselves one hot summer afternoon, waiting at the Edison Street crossing for yet another coal train to slowly pass by, our patience taxed to the limit, we need to educate ourselves, weigh each factor, and send comments to our local leaders and the Washington Department of Ecology.
Dan Clark, a retired English teacher, has a strong interest in following environmental issues and other scientific developments. He has lived in Kennewick for 37 years.
This story was originally published June 2, 2016 at 3:12 AM with the headline "Community Commentary: Benton too quick to support terminal."