Section A • Page 8 • tacomaweekly.com • Friday, April 22, 2016
t Sound Transit From page A1
station, which would provide train service to and for workers in Thurston County and Joint Base Lewis
McChord by 2036. The tri-county Sound Transit District is home to more than 40 percent of Washington's population, more than 70 percent of its economic activity and 97 percent of its congestion. By the year 2040, the region is expected to grow by about a million people, a 32
percent increase. Details about the projects as well as an online survey, can be found at www.soundtransit3.org. Comments can be sent to Sound Transit 3, 401 S. Jackson St., Seattle, Wash. 98104 or emailed to soundtransit3@soundtransit. org. Voice comments can be left at (206) 903-7000.
MAPS COURTESY OF SOUND TRANSIT
The Sound Transit 3 package would add rail service from Federal Way to Tacoma as well as light rail service between downtown Tacoma and Tacoma Community College.
t Methanol From page A1
activities to perform the necessary due diligence, public process, and environmental analysis,” Godley said. “Accountability and transparency are important. Given sufficient time, we believe we would have been able to satisfy most of the local citizens’ concerns and questions through the public participation process and correct a lot of the misinformation swirling about regarding potential impacts of our project.” One of the most vocal entities opposing the methanol plant has been the Puyallup Tribe of Indians, especially since the plant was slated to be built on the Tribe’s reservation that tribal members have worked decades to make into a wonderful place to live for everyone that calls it home. Puyallup Chairman Bill Sterud was delighted to hear the news of the plant’s demise. “We were going to stop it no matter what,” he said. “We’ve spent a lot of money to make Tacoma a very livable place and it is a livable place. This area has come a long way. What was exhilarating to me was not only that the Tribe’s treaty rights came to the forefront but the entire community felt the same way about a quality of life that exists in this area and on the Puyallup reservation. It’s a good quality of life – it includes fish and air and all that Mother Earth gave us. The days of the Superfund sites are gone forever and the powers that be realize that now and take that into consideration when looking at projects
like this.” The Chairman praised the Puyallup Tribal Council for their strong leadership in opposing the methanol plant. “The Tribal Council did an outstanding job holding the line and defending treaty rights. The entire council is to be commended for the tough stance they took at this time. They deserve a lot of credit.” Chairman Sterud said he’s ready to move on from the methanol issue now. “Yesterday was an important move toward the future and I feel great about it. We don’t have to use our resources on it now so we can have our staff work on positives for the future.” NWIW still plans to develop two conversion plants in the Pacific Northwest, one in Kalama and one in St. Helens, Oregon. While the Tacoma plant might be dead, not all critics aret declaring victory just yet. “I don’t believe them,” Save Tacoma Water organizer Sherry Bockwinkel said. “They haven’t been believable before, so I don’t believe them now. I think they may just try to come back when no one is watching.” Save Tacoma Water and Redline Tacoma will continue to gather signatures for two citizen initiatives that would require a public vote on all developments that would use more than a million gallons of water a day. The proposed plant would have used 10.4 million gallons a day and burn through enough electricity to otherwise power 320,000 homes. Environmental watchers are now strengthening their stares at Puget Sound Energy’s planned liquefied natural gas facility that would also be built on the Blair-Hylebos peninsula.
That $275 million facility would turn natural gas into a liquid that would then be used to power Totem Ocean Trailer Express container ships leaving the Port of Tacoma as well as provide an to 8 million gallon storage facility PSE could draw from during cold snaps. The Tacoma City Council greenlighted the plant last year, before opposition against the methanol plant formed. The plant has cleared the environmental review process last fall, but permits have yet to be issued. Permit applications are expected later this year, followed by a review from Tacoma Fire Department and City of Tacoma. The United States Coast Guard is conducting a Waterway Suitability Study for the proposed project as well. The Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission must also review the facility’s design. PSE plans to have the plant operational by 2019. Critics of the PSE facility, including Redline Tacoma, the Puyallup Tribe and the environmental policy think tank Sightline, fear the storage tanks could leak or explode, prompting the circulation of “blast zone” maps on social media that shows much of the tideflats and downtown Tacoma could be impacted by a disaster. “The Tacoma Fire Department does not endorse the graphic circulating on social media that depicts ‘blast zones’ of one, two and three mile radii centered at the site of the proposed facility,” according to the city’s fact page about the planned facility. “Such zones might be appropriate for LNG import/export terminals served by LNG cargo ships carry-
Want more information? s Northwest Innovation Works posts announcements at nwinnovationworks.com. s Puget Sound Energy produced a website of frequently asked questions about its planned LNG facility at Tacomacleanlng. com/resources. s The City of Tacoma Planning and Development services has its own dedicated webpage for the proposed facility that can be found through cityoftacoma.org. s The Port of Tacoma posts updates and meeting notices on Portoftacoma.com/news.
ing 35 million or more gallons of LNG. They are based on worst-case scenarios involving a terrorist attack on an LNG cargo ship resulting in an uncontrolled spill of LNG over the water. There will be no cargo ships calling on the proposed facility capable of carrying those amounts of LNG, and they will not be permitted to operate as an import/export facility.” PSE used the potential of a terrorist attack as grounds to block the city from releasing details about the plant to Redline Tacoma organizer John Carlton. Specifically Carlton wanted Tacoma Fire’s risk assessment of the plant. PSE argued that releasing those details would make the plant a potential terrorist target and so the city should not disclose the information. Pierce County Superior Court Judge Frank E. Cuthbertson has so far agreed. He issued a temporary order barring their release last week, but will hear more arguments April 29, on whether to make that order permanent.
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