PRESORTED STANDARD
U.S. Postage Paid
Vernonia, OR 97064
Permit No. 37
Vol. 27, No. 14
THE
FREE
INDEPENDENT
The Voice
Voice of
of the Upper Nehalem River
The
River Valley
Valley for
for Over
Over 25
27 years
years
July 18, 2012
Among the volunteers helping Vernonia School District on moving day were a work crew
from South Fork Forest Camp. The Lions Club made lunch for all the volunteers and State
Senator Betsy Johnson, flanked by inmates in this picture, served the meal. The work crew
is shown above, after lunch, enjoying a visit with dogs Thor and Molly. Grade School Princi-
pal Aaron Miller and Superintendent Ken Cox are standing in the rear at the right corner. For
more information on the event, see Chalk Talk on page 12.
Right; John Dass and Bo Clark, Vernonia High School student volunteers, were setting tem-
perature data loggers in Rock Creek as part of a DEQ project on July 5. Photo by Aaron Miller.
Columbia County Citizens for Human Dignity hold Coal Forum
by Jack and Nancy Phillips
A proposed coal export ter-
minal at the Port of St. Helens
was the topic of conversation,
July 11, at one of a series of
popular Kitchen Table Conver-
sations held by Columbia
County Citizens for Human
Dignity (CCCHD), a community
service organization. The lively
event, held at St. Wenceslas
Catholic Church in Scappoose
was moderated by CCCHD
member David Schaarf.
Introductions and welcoming
statements were made for par-
ticipants from both government
and private groups, but there
were no representatives from
the Governor’s office, the
Corps of Engineers, Kinder-
Morgan (Coal) Company, Port-
land & Pacific Railroad, or the
Oregon Department of Trans-
portation. Columbia County
Commissioners Tony Hyde and
Henry Heimuller were in atten-
dance, but did not seek or take
questions from the community
A panel of four speakers in-
cluded Brian Gard of Gard
Communications, a Portland
PR firm representing Amber
Energy Company of Australia;
Brett VandenHeuvel, an attor-
ney and Executive Director for
Columbia Riverkeepers; Pat-
rick Trapp, Executive Director
for the Port of St. Helens; and
Bethany Cotton, an attorney
and spokeswoman for Green-
peace.
According to Gard, a large
coal terminal would bring bene-
fits to Columbia County, includ-
ing 25 permanent jobs.
VandenHeuvel spoke of an
overwhelming increase in
barge (Amber Energy Compa-
ny) and rail (Kinder-Morgan,
Inc.) traffic along the Columbia
River which, he said, would
cause coal dust pollution of air
and water, as yet unheard of in
Oregon. He also cited opposi-
tion from a panel of 180 physi-
cians because of potential
harm to public, and especially
children’s, health.
Trapp explained how the
Port of St. Helens finds and
processes prospective lease
tenants for port facilities.
Cotton emphasized the toxi-
city of Powder River Coal, and
that it is a soft, powdery miner-
al, not hard rock, in its mined
state. According to Cotton, it is
highly friable and easily ignited,
at rest or in transit, posing dan-
gers for Columbia County resi-
dents, firefighters and the
county’s already strained infra-
structure and emergency as-
sets. She cited insufficient as-
sets in Columbia County to
handle a derailment, explosion
or large, coal-fed fire, and
asked who would pay for such
a catastrophe? Coal can be
shipped to Asia and the Far
East for profits, but its pollu-
tants come back to the West
Coast in stratospheric wind
streams that contain lead and
30% of our mercury poisoning.
After panel members initial
statements were completed,
the forum broke up into over a
dozen round table discussions.
This resulted in a series of pri-
oritized questions being asked
of the panelists and, following
their answers, follow-up ques-
tions and measured discussion
from the community members.
The response from commu-
nity members was vigorous.
Most people were demonstra-
bly upset with the dangers to
clean air, clean water, public
health, public safety, and emer-
gency response capabilities,
plus mile-long, 124 car coal
trains along Hwy 30, Scap-
poose and St Helens (12 a
day); and a 100% increase in
barge traffic. In addition to
these issues, community mem-
bers were concerned that lease
options had been negotiated by
the Port of St. Helens without
public notice, and that port
commissioners met individually
with coal companies, avoiding
a quorum and notice require-
ments.
The main idea put forward
from The final discussions em-
phasized that community mem-
bers not wanting toxic coal in
Columbia County, should con-
tact the agencies issuing per-
mits, and oppose the issuance
of such permits for the reasons
discussed. If no permits are is-
sued, the coal corporations and
the terminals would be
stopped.
At one table, a man com-
mented loudly, “What I want to
know is, who the heck thought
this (coal) was a good idea,
anyway?”
Look for the
Jamboree
Pull-out Section
in the August 1
issue