A3
THE ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, MAY 30, 2019
Acres at Clatskanie port to remain farmland, for now
existing 82-acre port site
vacated by Northwest Inno-
vation Works.
“We are following land
developments at Port West-
ward closely, and thought-
fully
considering
our
requirements and options.
We have no further com-
ments at this time and will
make an announcement at
the appropriate time in the
future,” said Lou Soumas,
one of the project backers.
Like Northwest Innova-
Plans for an
industrial plant
By TONY SCHICK
Oregon Public
Broadcasting
Columbia County’s plan
to turn 837 acres of farm-
land into an industrial site
along the Columbia River is
headed back to the county
for revisions — again.
The Port of Columbia
County has been seeking
to rezone land at its Port
Westward site near Clats-
kanie since 2013, with
potential uses including a
gas-to-methanol plant or
a refi nery for diesel made
from palm and vegetable
oils.
Columbia Riverkeeper
has been fi ghting it at every
step, appealing the deci-
sion fi rst to the state Land
Use Board of Appeals,
declaring that a victory and
nonetheless appealing yet
again to the Oregon Court
of Appeals seeking fur-
ther rebuke of the county’s
efforts.
The county, in turn,
argued it had addressed
all questions necessary to
rezoning the land.
Neither side won on
appeal. Instead, both now
proceed knowing there is
just one question left to
address: Whether the port’s
new industrial tenants
would be compatible with
nearby uses, which include
a 450-acre mint farm.
The
appeals
court
decided last week the
county had satisfi ed all cri-
teria but this one, uphold-
ing the previous decision
of the Land Use Board of
Ecotrust
One of two methanol plants proposed for the Northwest would be built at Port Westward.
Appeals.
“We’re hopeful that the
court decision provides the
county and the port a new
opportunity to set a high bar
for protecting high-value
farmland and for protect-
ing strong salmon runs,”
said Dan Serres, conserva-
tion director for Columbia
Riverkeeper.
Port of Columbia County
Executive Director Doug
Hayes said he expected
the county to have its lat-
est proposal back in front
of state offi cials in the next
two months, depending
on whether they would be
revising their old applica-
tion or starting the process
over.
“I’m excited that we’re
down to one fi nal question
remaining,” Hayes said.
“Since 2013, there have
been several questions we
needed to answer and so to
get it down to one is signifi -
cant progress.”
A t least two proposed
projects could hinge on
that farmland becoming
available.
Last week, port com-
missioners cancel ed a lease
with Northwest Innovation
Works, a Chinese-backed
group looking to build a
gas-to-methanol plant on 82
acres of existing industrial
land at the port. Instead, the
port has now offered North-
west Innovation Works the
chance to use a patch of that
farmland.
Hayes said Northwest
Innovation Works agreed
to move to the farmland,
pending the rezone. That
would allow the port to try
and bring in another com-
pany that would be ready to
provide jobs sooner.
“They recognize the
need for jobs,” he said.
“And right now that 82
acres is the only piece of
property that is properly
zoned that does not have an
existing tenant ready to go.”
A spokeswoman for
Northwest
Innovation
Works told the Capital
Press the company was in
the early stages of plan-
ning at Port Westward.
The company has prom-
ised hundreds of local jobs
and billions of dollars in
investment in Northwest
communities.
Northwest Innovation
Works previously had plans
for a site in Tacoma, and
recently Washington Gov.
Jay Inslee voiced his oppo-
sition to the company’s pro-
posal for another methanol
plant in Kalama.
Another project, known
as NEXT Renewable Fuels,
has also eyed that 837 acres
of farmland. NEXT would
make renewable diesel,
which is a replacement for
traditional diesel the com-
pany plans to market to
West Coast buyers as a way
to lower greenhouse gas
emissions.
Hayes said NEXT is fur-
ther along than any other
project the port has consid-
ered, and could be a can-
didate for moving into the
Judge dismisses lawsuit over dairy pollution
Problems in
Tillamook Bay
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Jesse Hayes
Bags of oysters are pulled from Tillamook Bay before they’re graded and packaged by a worker
with the Hayes Oyster Co.
have an independent basis
for jurisdiction over the case
due to how agency actions
must be challenged under
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The judge also ruled that
Hayes doesn’t have the legal
standing to challenge the
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ute of limitations, since the
oyster company would have
been aware of the effect on
oyster harvests since the
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ronmental Quality’s inade-
quate regulation has harmed
Hayes, as well as people
who recreationally harvest
clams and crabs from the
bay, said Thomas Benke,
the attorney for Hayes, in an
email.
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in the court’s ruling in
that it effectively insulates
the department from any
accountability for its fail-
ure to establish a TMDL that
is intended to achieve the
shellfi sh harvesting water
quality standard in Tilla-
mook Bay,” he said.
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By MATEUSZ
PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
A lawsuit alleging insuf-
fi cient regulation of dairy
pollution in Tillamook Bay
cannot proceed for proce-
dural and jurisdictional rea-
sons, according to a state
judge.
However, the oyster com-
pany that fi led the complaint
against the state Department
of Environmental Quality
plans to appeal that decision.
Two years ago, the Hayes
Oyster Co. accused the
department of enacting total
maximum daily load stan-
dards for fecal coliform bac-
teria that were too lenient,
effectively allowing dairy
pollution to shut down or
restrict oyster harvest on 600
acres of plats in the bay.
Hayes contended that
the state wrongly assumed
that confi ned animal feeding
operation permits for dair-
ies prohibited all wastewater
discharge even though such
effl uent continued to enter
waterways, amounting to a
“pollution easement” across
the Tillamook Bay.
Last year, Tillamook
County Circuit Court Judge
Mari Garric Trevino found
that the Department of Envi-
ronmental Quality hadn’t
properly fi nalized the load
order in 2001, which at the
time allowed Hayes to con-
tinue pursuing litigation
against the agency.
In her most recent opin-
ion, however, Trevino has
determined that she doesn’t
tion Works, the Port West-
ward site is not Soumas’s
fi rst attempt at a North-
west energy project. He
and others previously were
involved in an attempt
to site an oil refi nery in
Longview, Washington, as
well as a biofuels plant in
Odessa, Washington, which
was later the subject of a
$400,000 federal environ-
mental cleanup and allega-
tions of more than $1.6 mil-
lion in unpaid debt.
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