State regulators’ handling of coal permits worries BCTC
Oregon construction union officials
are worried that future development
could be in jeopardy because of the
way state regulators are processing per-
mits for a proposed coal export termi-
nal on the Columbia River. Construc-
tion workers make their living building
things, they say, so less development
hits them directly in the pocketbook.
Union and company officials say
that the controversial $242 million
Morrow Pacific coal export project pro-
posed by Ambre Energy of Australia is
facing “unprecedented” scrutiny from
state regulators, with the end goal of
denying it permits.
Ambre needs permits approved by
the Oregon Department of Environ-
mental Quality (DEQ), the Oregon De-
partment of State Lands (DSL), and the
U.S. Army Corp of Engineers in order
to start building the Coyote Island Ter-
minal and dock at the Port of Morrow
near Boardman.
The plan is to ship coal by rail from
the Powder River Basin in Wyoming
and Montana to the Port of Morrow.
There it will be transferred to an en-
closed storage facility and loaded onto
covered barges through an enclosed
conveyor, where it will be shipped
down the Columbia River to Port West-
ward Industrial Park at the Port of St.
Helens. There, enclosed transloaders
MAY 16, 2014
will transfer the coal onto oceangoing
ships to Asia. Ambre says the project
sets new standards for protecting the
environment.
“Beginning when coal is off-loaded
at the Port of Morrow facility until it ar-
rives in Asia, there will be no visible
coal and little, if any, coal dust,” said
spokeswoman Liz Fuller.
Still, exporting coal is extremely
controversial in Oregon. Democratic
Gov. John Kitzhaber opposes any in-
vestment in the coal export infrastruc-
ture. Environmental groups and Native
American tribes have threatened law-
suits if the project is allowed to go for-
ward. Some elected officials have writ-
ten the governor asking him to deny
permits for the project. DEQ said it re-
ceived a record 16,500 public com-
ments during the review process.
“Coal is a legal commodity, and this
project shouldn’t be treated differently
than any other terminal project of sim-
ilar size and impact,” said John Mohlis,
executive secretary of the Oregon State
Building and Construction Trades
Council. “Permits should be based on
policy, not politics.”
But union and company officials ar-
gue that the Morrow Pacific Project is
being treated differently. They say the
DSL is acting outside its legal authority
by considering the potential impacts on
tribal fishing, recreation, and navigation
on port property before it will issue a
removal-fill permit for the Coyote Is-
land Terminal. The company says the
project will have no impact on fisheries
and will harm no tribal fishing sites.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
is currently conducting an environmen-
tal assessment of the project.
In a written response to the DSL,
Ambre wrote: “The proposed dock site
is ... within a heavily industrial area, on
private Port of Morrow property and
situated between two already existing
docks. This is where the State of Ore-
gon has said that docks like this should
be sited and is the purpose of having a
port in the first place.”
Another significant development oc-
curred in March when the DSL in-
formed Ambre that the proposed trans-
fer sites at both ports were located over
state-owned submerged lands, and that
the company would need to lease more
state land in order to operate.
Union and company officials say the
land lease requirements “grossly ex-
pands DSL’s jurisdiction” and will have
implications for all river commerce
vessels.
The company already has land lease
agreements in place with both ports. It
has signed a letter of understanding
with both the Pendleton Building
Trades Council and the Columbia Pa-
cific Building Trades Council to per-
form all construction work with union
labor. Unionized Vigor Industrial and
nonunion Gunderson Marine of Port-
land will each get a piece of a $75 mil-
lion contract to build 20 new covered
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
coal barges and up to five new tug boats
that will be needed to move the coal.
And unionized Tidewater Barge Lines
of Vancouver, Wash., will provide tug
and barge transportation service on the
Columbia River. [Ambre Energy said it
has had preliminary talks with the In-
ternational Longshore and Warehouse
Union to work the terminals, but noth-
ing is finalized.] All told, the project
will create over 2,000 construction jobs
and over 1,000 operations jobs.
“That’s a lot of private-sector, family
wage jobs for parts of this state that
have been hit especially hard by the
Great Recession,” Mohlis said.
Union and company officials also
are pointing fingers at the DEQ.
Ambre says DEQ initially told them
it didn’t need any permits for the proj-
ect. The environmental agency later re-
versed itself, saying permits were
needed for air quality, construction
storm water and water quality. The
company complied, and in February
2014 DEQ issued those permits. But
then it said it needed another water
quality certification — called a 401 cer-
tification.
“It is highly unusual, unprecedented,
that after two years DEQ would ask for
a new certification,” Fuller said.
At public hearings conducted by the
DEQ, Chuck Little, executive secre-
tary-treasurer of the Pendleton BCTC,
said it was clearly stated that as long as
standards were met, the agency had no
choice but to issue the permits.
“DEQ can’t stop from issuing a per-
mit just because they don’t like it,” Lit-
tle said.
Ambre submitted the new applica-
tion in April, but it could take up to six
months for a permit to be issued. The
delay impacts the Corps of Engineers’
environmental assessment because it
needs the 401 certification from the
DEQ before it can be finalized, Clark
Moseley, president and CEO of the
Morrow Pacific Project, told the Labor
Press.
Meantime, Gov. Kitzhaber said late
last month that the DSL will make its
decision on the removal-fill permit ap-
plication by no later than May 31.
Moseley says DSL can do one of
three things: “It can deny the permit; it
can agree to our request for an exten-
sion; or it can approve the permit. From
all indications they will deny our per-
mit application.”
“If you change the rules as you go,
what’s next?” asked Mohlis. “You can
always find somebody who doesn’t like
something.
“We believe that some of the deci-
sions now being made run the risk of
creating serious issues for future proj-
ects, which would have a direct impact
on our members,” he said.
Recently, a group of local elected of-
ficials and community leaders sent a
letter to Gov.Kitzhaber and the director
of the DSL urging a fair review process
of the project.
“If that process leads to the issuance
of a removal-fill permit, then we should
welcome Morrow Pacific to Oregon,”
said the letter, signed by 68 individuals,
including mayors, city commissioners,
port officials and union officials who
live along the Columbia River.
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