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THE ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, JUNE 23, 2022
Expansion planned for Coos Bay port
By SIERRA DAWN
McCLAIN
Capital Press
Offi cials and develop-
ers for decades have talked
about expanding the Port of
Coos Bay in southern Ore-
gon, turning it into one of
the West Coast’s shipping
giants.
Now, the proposed proj-
ect has a major develop-
er-investor behind it.
The developer is a Mis-
souri-based fi rm called
NorthPoint Development,
which Real Capital Analyt-
ics in 2020 named the No.
1 industrial developer in
the U.S. The company has
developed more than 140
million square feet of indus-
trial space for about 465
businesses, including For-
tune 500 companies such
as Walmart, Amazon and
FedEx.
Last week at the Agricul-
ture Transportation Coali-
tion’s conference in Tacoma,
Washington,
NorthPoint
Development unveiled its
plans for Coos Bay.
The plan is to develop a
rail-served, deep-water port
with a three-berth terminal.
A berth is where vessels are
secured when they’re not at
sea.
Once constructed, the
facility could serve agri-
cultural exporters nation-
wide and move more than
1 million 40-foot containers
annually.
Chad Meyer, president
and founding partner of
NorthPoint Development,
said he believes the port
expansion will help relieve
congestion and meet future
Oregon International Port of Coos Bay
Coos Bay is seen from the air.
shipping demand.
“What we’re going to
do is be a pressure release
valve,” said Meyer.
Meyer said NorthPoint
Development has been
working behind the scenes
for months to scope out the
ideal location for a West
Coast port.
“We’ve made a pretty
massive investment in our
research and data team,”
said Meyer. “So, quietly,
for about a year and a half,
we studied the entire West
Coast … and fi gured that
the only option that could
AGRICULTURAL EXPORTERS ARE
WATCHING WITH INTEREST.
geographically handle a
deep-water port was already
in existence, and that was
the Port of Coos Bay.”
The site is ideal for sev-
eral reasons, he said. The
location already has a fed-
erally-managed channel, a
private rail line that could
connect to Class I railroads,
hundreds of acres of unde-
veloped industrial property
— “and most importantly, a
willing community.”
The plan would likely
include building cold stor-
age facilities and connect-
ing the Port of Coos Bay’s
private rail line to Union
Pacifi c Co.’s Class I rail-
roads in Eugene and else-
where. Meyer said Union
Pacifi c so far has been “a
very willing partner and
very supportive of the
project.”
Researchers track microplastic pollution in river basin
By CASSANDRA
PROFITA
Oregon Public Broadcasting
The evidence is mount-
ing: Microplastic pollution
is pretty much everywhere.
Studies around the world
have found tiny plastic
fi bers and particles in riv-
ers and lakes, in the ocean’s
seafood, fl oating in the air
above remote mountaintops
and in freshly fallen snow in
Antarctica.
Testing shows they’re
making their way into
human bodies, too. Scien-
tists recently found micro-
plastics in people’s lungs
and blood.
Researchers at Port-
land State University want
to know more about where
microplastic pollution is
coming from and how it’s
getting into the air and water
— right here in Oregon.
They recently launched a
yearlong eff ort to track the
sources of microplastics in
the Columbia River basin,
a massive network of riv-
ers and streams that covers
much of the Pacifi c North-
west. In addition to sam-
pling the air and water to
identify the biggest sources
of microplastic pollution,
they’re working to build a
network of people in gov-
ernment, industry and edu-
cation who might help man-
age the problem.
Elise Granek, professor
of environmental science
and management at Portland
State University, said she’s
hoping to track the “micro-
plastic cycle” from sources
such as wastewater sprayed
on agricultural fi elds, car
tires that wear down and
contaminate
stormwater,
clothes dryers that spew air-
borne fi bers, and wastewater
treatment plants that empty
directly into rivers.
“In order to manage the
microplastics, we need to
understand the most signifi -
cant sources,” she said.
Granek has already done
multiple studies on micro-
plastics in the ocean and
has consistently found it in
marine life such as clams,
Todd Sonfl ieth/Oregon Public Broadcasting
Microplastic fi bers are less than 5 millimeters wide and often
appear in vivid colors when viewed under a microscope.
crabs and oysters.
In 2019, she helped Ore-
gon Public Broadcasting
sample for microplastics in
rivers across Oregon in a
citizen science project that
found microscopic plas-
tic fi bers and particles in
the Columbia, Willamette,
Rogue and Deschutes river
basins.
Now, Granek wants to
take a closer look at how
microplastics are getting
into those rivers, all of which
eventually lead to the ocean.
“We do know there are
microplastics at least in our
waterways,” Granek said.
“But we don’t know what the
dominant sources of micro-
plastics into the Columbia
River basin are. People have
speculated about a number
of sources.”
Granek is working with
Heejun Chang, a Portland
State geography professor,
to sample for microplas-
tics in the air and water near
likely sources of microplas-
tic pollution.
“We plan to collect sam-
ples from a number of dif-
ferent sites that represent
urban lands and farmlands,
recreational sites, industrial
sites, households as well as
waterways and motorways,”
Chang said. “From the most
remote rural area to the most
urbanized sections.”
To fi nd out what’s in the
air, researchers plan to col-
lect and analyze moss sam-
ples. Moss is a natural air
pollution monitor because it
gets all of its nutrients from
the atmosphere. A landmark
study in Portland in 2016
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used moss to uncover pre-
viously unknown hot spots
of toxic air pollution around
the city.
Chang said they know
weather factors like rain
can play a role in spread-
ing microplastics, so they’ll
be collecting samples over
time to compare microplas-
tic pollution across wet win-
ters and dry summers.
“This is looking at the
whole microplastic cycle
from the source to the trans-
port and destination in a
more holistic way,” Granek
said. “By sampling both
the air and water, we hope
to get a better understand-
ing of what the atmospheric
contribution is versus what
the landscape contribution
is.”
To learn how much
microplastic pollution is
traveling through the air and
water, Granek said, they’ll
be collecting samples at dif-
ferent distances from sus-
pected sources.
“We’re hoping to under-
stand how far microplastics
are traveling from those par-
ticular sources,” she said.
“So, in a land application
of biosolids onto a fi eld, for
example, we want to know
the amount that gets aero-
solized and blown further
out. Maybe that’s diff erent
than what’s being blown out
of the dryer vent.”
The
yearlong
sam-
pling eff ort will allow
the researchers to map a
research project that spans
the 258,000 square miles of
the Columbia River basin.
Granek and Chang are work-
ing with a research team
that includes Sarah Carvill,
an environmental science
instructor at Portland State,
Nancee Hunter, director
of the Center for Geogra-
phy Education in Oregon at
Portland State, Jordyn Wol-
fand, assistant professor of
civil engineering at the Uni-
versity of Portland, and Jan-
ice Brahney, associate pro-
fessor of watershed sciences
at Utah State University.
Chang said to start work-
ing toward solutions, they’re
also holding workshops
for scientists, wastewater
managers, government and
industry leaders. This week,
they’re launching a class for
teachers that will provide
them with lessons on micro-
plastics that they can bring
to their classrooms.
“Unless we change
behaviors and change pol-
icy, we won’t be able to
solve this issue,” he said.
Meyer estimates con-
struction will begin in two
years and facilities will be
operational within fi ve to
six years.
In total, developing the
port is estimated to cost
$1.7 billion. Meyer said he
anticipates the project will
need private investment
coupled with federal grant
money, potentially from the
infrastructure law Congress
passed in 2021.
During President Joe
Biden’s visit to Portland in
April, U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden,
U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley and
U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio, all
Oregon Democrats, asked
the president to use infra-
structure dollars for Coos
Bay’s port expansion. The
president made no immedi-
ate promises.
NorthPoint Development
says it’s committed to the
project.
“This is a when, not an
if. We’re privately going to
invest hundreds of millions
of dollars in making sure
this thing happens,” said
Meyer.
Experts say unexpected
world events could still slow
the project.
Prior to 2008, accord-
ing to John Burns, the
port’s CEO, Maersk, then
the world’s largest shipping
company, was preparing to
invest in a Coos Bay con-
tainer port. Then the Great
Recession struck and the
company withdrew.
Economists
surveyed
by the Wall Street Journal
this month predicted a 44%
chance of recession in the
next 12 months.
However, the port’s
staff and Meyer say they’re
optimistic.
Agricultural exporters
are watching with interest.
“That’s incredibly excit-
ing,” said Peter Fried-
mann, executive director of
the Agriculture Transpor-
tation Coalition. “I mean,
we’re looking for alterna-
tive solutions. We’re doing
some nibbling around the
edges and maybe moving
some boxes off terminals to
another place a mile away or
something like that, but this
— this is visionary, I would
say, and ambitious.”
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