Action Alert:
Ask
US Army Corps of Engineers, Senators Murray and Cantwell to Keep the Gateway Pacific Terminal Permit Process Open and Fair!
The
Washington Environmental Council
has teamed
up with the
Lummi
Nation in asking the US Army Corps of Engineers to abandon the EIS
process
mid-stream and deny permits without even completing the environmental assessment and having all of the facts in!
This would be a huge denial of due process and create chaos for other job-creating projects.
ACTION REQUESTED
: Please use the contact information below to tell the Army Corps and Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell to do what's proper and fair and have the Corps finish the EIS process that it has started before making any decisions.
Some tribal interests (such as the Crow Nation, a producer of low-sulfur coal) are supporting the Gateway Pacific Terminal project; but the Lummi Nation opposes "any and all Cherry Point development" and refuses to even discuss with project sponsors whether common ground can be found. It has asked the US Army Corps of Engineers to honor their tribe's request to have their own veto power over the project without going through the normal process that is designed to provide permitting agencies with a full set of facts and science. [The public is not included in any behind-the-scenes discussions that may being going on with tribes.] This make no sense. The Gateway Pacific Terminal project... ...has been decades in planning ...is located on private "non-tribal" property zoned for water-dependent heavy industry ...is taking federal, state, and local governments years to start and conduct the broadest EIS review in Washington's history, after holding public hearings all over the state ...is costing the proponent (SSA Marine) more $$millions to pay for the process than even the Keystone Pipeline EIS cost
- How could an agency make an informed and fair decision until the fact-gathering is complete?
- And what harm is done in finishing what has been started, as long as the project is willing to pay for it?
Ask the Army Corps to have respect for working families and to let the full EIS and permit process play out before decisions are made. And ask Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell to encourage the Corps to do the right thing and complete the process that it started! It's only fair! [click here to see our letter to the Corps] Contact the US Army Corps of Engineers: paoteam@nws02.usace.army.mil PO Box 3755 Seattle, WA 98124-3755 (206) 764-3742 Contact Senator Murray: murray.senate.gov/email 154 Russell Senate Office Building Washington, D.C. 20510 Toll Free: (866) 481-9186 Contact Senator Cantwell: cantwell.senate.gov/email 311 Hart Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510 Toll Free: (888) 648-7328
or mail us at: P.O. Box 2162, Bellingham, WA 98227 or call us at: 360-201-8249 |