coal | Rosemere Neighborhood Association

Power Past Coal Campaign – RNA letter to Vancouver City Council

June 25, 2012 Author: admin

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Train unloading coal at Millennium terminal in June 2011

On June 19, 2012, Rosemere Neighborhood Association submitted a letter to Vancouver Mayor, City Council and City Managers asking the City of Vancouver to join in the efforts by Governor Kitzhaber and Senator Patty Murray to call for a regional Environmental Impact Statement regarding the doubling of international coal exports through the Pacific Northwest. Seven mega coal terminals are proposed to ship 157 million tons of coal annually to China. The coal trains will flow daily through Vancouver, spewing toxic residue with each train.

Excerpted from the letter, which was presented at Vancouver City Council meeting, Monday, June 25, 2012:

Facing the slowing of U.S. coal fired power plants, coal companies like Massey and Arch Coal are looking to harvest and ship an additional 157 million tons of coal per year, sending 30 – 60 trains per day through the Columbia River Gorge via Portland and Vancouver, where it is intended to be shipped to Asia. Each and every car from a coal train can unleash 500 pounds of coal dust. The coal trains proposed to run through Portland and Vancouver will be 75 miles long, each day making the Pacific Northwest the largest coal chute in the nation, originating in Montana’s Powder Ridge Basin. There are various international coal export terminals proposed for Oregon and Washington, and should they proceed unabated, the health and environmental impacts to our region and our way life will be substantial.

To view the letter in its entirety: Coal to City Council

Power Past Coal Rally, Pioneer Courthouse Square, Portland Oregon

May 8, 2012 Author: admin

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Power Past Coal Rally, Portland, OR 5-7-12

The Power Past Coal Rally began at noon on a bright, sunny, spring day with a chant from various members of the Riverkeeper Alliance: “Clean Coal is a Dirty Lie!”

Power Past Coal Rally At Portland's Pioneer Courthouse Square 5-7-12

Columbia Riverkeeper, Sierra Club, Climate Solutions and Greenpeace sponsored the Power Past Coal event with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Environmental Attorney and Chairman of the Waterkeeper Alliance, as the featured speaker. Kennedy, who has been working against coal for more than 30 years, has been dubbed “Hero of the Planet” by Time Magazine.

Facing the slowing of U.S. coal fired power plants, coal companies like Massey and Arch Coal are looking to harvest and ship 150 million tons of coal per year, sending 30 -50 trains per day through the Columbia River Gorge via Portland and Vancouver Neighborhoods, where it is intended to be shipped to China. Each car from a coal train can unleash 500 pounds of coal dust. The coal trains proposed to run through Portland and Vancouver will be 75 miles long each day making the Pacific Northwest the largest coal chute in the nation, originating in Montana’s Powder Ridge Basin.

Toxins emanating from the transport and burning of coal include mercury, arsenic, lead, sulphur dioxide, and ozone among 50 known contaminants. Health impacts, especially for young children, include mental retardation, impacts to speech and gait, lung and liver damage, autism and blindness. Estimates show that 300,000 to 600,000 children are exposed to high levels of mercury each year stemming from the coal industry. Coal emissions also exacerbate asthma, emphysema, can cause cancer, and contaminate rivers and fish, and can also reduce rainfall and snow pack caused by climate change. Just last week, Portland General Electric opposed the placement of a coal terminal near its power plant because dirty coal would hamper plant operations, and Oregon’s Governor Kitzhaber requested a regional Environmental Impact Study to identify public health and environmental impacts expected from seven proposed coal terminals in Oregon and Washington State. [Read More...]

Rosemere Neighborhood Association’s Clean Water Act settlement victory leads to changes at Millennium coal terminal in Longview, $50,000 in mitigation payments

October 6, 2011 Author: admin

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Train unloading coal at Millennium terminal in June 2011

Rosemere Neighborhood Association and Longview based Land Owners and Citizens for a Safe Community have prevailed in their efforts to bring substantial pollution reduction changes to the Millennium Bulk Logistics coal terminal in Longview. The settlement was finalized just days before the community groups planned to file a federal Clean Water Act suit in federal district court against Millennium and their Australian parent company Ambre Energy. Millennium claimed to be operating under a permit first issued to Reynolds Aluminum over 20 years ago.

The agreement creates substantial new limits on the operation of the facility and requires Millennium to obtain a new pollution permit that will update the outdated pollution limits which are now two decades old.

A summary of key points from the settlement is below. The entire settlement document can be found here: FINAL Settlement Agreement RNA & LCSC vs MBTL

Clean Water Act settlement summary:

Under the agreement with Rosemere Neighborhood Association & Landowners and Citizens for a Safe Community, until Millennium Bulk Terminals/Longview receives a new Clean Water Act discharge permit from Ecology, Millennium must:

Remove coal and pet coke piles: Millennium will have to remove the massive outdoor coal and petroleum coke piles that have dominated the site in recent years. Millennium will also be prohibited from any outdoor storage of coal. Millennium has already moved much if not all of the coal pile inside the old aluminum plant buildings and plans to remove the pet coke piles within six months.
No new customers: Millennium is prohibited from providing coal to any new customers and thus the terminal is limited to providing coal to Weyerhauser.
New pollution reduction measures: The agreement requires Millennium to implement a capital project to cover over its coal conveyors used to move coal around the site to prevent rainfall from contacting the coal. It is also required to install EPA- certified pollution control filters at stormwater inlets.
Penalty payment of $50,000. In lieu of any Clean Water Act penalties Millennium will pay a $50,000 “Supplemental Environmental Project” in two increments to Friends of the East Fork, which works on habitat restoration for salmon.
Commitment to obtain new pollution control permit: After LCSC and Rosemere filed its notice of intent to sue Millennium filed for a new pollution control permit with the Dept. of Ecology. Under the settlement Millennium must continue to move forward with this new permit which should provide significantly tougher pollution limits on the terminal than those contained in the 20-year old permit Millennium says currently applies to its operations.
Attorney fees and costs. Millennium will pay all of LCSC and Rosemere’s attorneys fees and costs for preparing the case.

Coal Free Washington Town Hall Meeting Held in Vancouver

April 27, 2010 Author: admin

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TransAlta Coal Plant, Centralia , WA <br> (image: Sierra Club)

TransAlta Coal Plant, Centralia , WA (image: Sierra Club)

In the fall of 2007, the Rosemere Neighborhood Association, along with five other Northwest environmental groups including Columbia Riverkeeper, Willapa Audubon Society, Washington Environmental Council, Sierra Club’s Cascade Chapter and Northwest Energy Coalition were granted the legal status to intervene in the permitting process for Energy Northwest’s proposed 680-megawatt coal-fueled Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) power plant in Kalama, Washington. The intervention was successful, and Energy Northwest withdrew its application to build the coal fired power plant. Environmental groups provided testimony regarding the contamination caused by coal fired power plants, and the public was mobilized to object to Energy Northwest’s plans that would have polluted the Columbia River and would have impacted the health of local residents.

In an effort to make Washington State a coal-free state, conservation groups are now focusing on the aged TransAlta coal fired power plant in Centralia. During the week of Earth Day, a coalition of organizations sponsored Town Hall meetings in Western Washington to discuss the environmental and public health impacts caused by coal plants, and to mobilize efforts to shut down the TransAlta plant, the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions, mercury pollution, and coal haze that that invades 12 wilderness areas in Washington State.

A study published in Open Atmospheric Science Journal by a group of ten scientists from the United States (including NASA), the United Kingdom and France argue that a prompt moratorium on new coal use and a complete phase out of existing coal emissions is needed by 2030 to avert environmental catastrophe. The report concludes: “The stakes, for all life on the planet, surpass those of any previous crisis.”

Rosemere attended the Town Hall meeting in Vancouver, April 21, 2010, sponsored by the Sierra Club. Panelists included Maye Thompson from Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility, Doug Howell of the Sierra Club, and Ted Nace, author of the book Climate Hope: On the Front Lines of the Fight Against Coal. The Sierra Club has formed the Coal Free campaign with a chapter working in Washington State. [Read More...]

A Coal-Free Washington is Possible

December 12, 2009 Author: admin

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TransAlta Coal Plant, Centralia , WA (image: Sierra Club)

More than 20% of our Electricity in Washington comes from Coal.

Coal is our nation’s dirtiest energy source. But few Washingtonians realize that the TransAlta coal plan in Centralia burns roughly 4 million tons of coal each year.

TransAlta coal plant is the largest single source of pollution in Washington.

Toxic pollution from coal plants contributes to heart and ling disease, cancer, stroke and premature death.

The TransAlta coal plant is Washington’s biggest polluter of toxic mercury. Mercury pollutes the water we drink, the fish we eat, and is especially dangerous to children and women who are pregnant or may become pregnant.

Dirty coal can be replaced with clean energy solutions that will reduce pollution and protect our health. [Read More...]

Energy Northwest Cancels Plans to Build Kalama Power Facility

May 29, 2009 Author: admin

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This is a 2544-ton-per-day coal gasification plant on the Wabash River in Indiana. (Photo: Department of Energy)

Energy Northwest has withdrawn its application for the Pacific Mountain Energy Facility (PMEC) in Kalama. In a letter this month to the State of Washington Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council (EFSEC), Energy Northwest explained its decision saying, “Our efforts have determined that the financial and economic conditions do not support a project of this size.”

Originally slated to be a $1.5 billion coal gasification plant, Energy Northwest had amended its plans for a coal powered plant in favor of natural gas in response to environmental objections raised by the Rosemere Neighborhood Association and Columbia Riverkeeper, Willapa Audubon Society, Washington Environmental Council, Sierra Club’s Cascade Chapter and Northwest Energy Coalition.

[Read More...]

Update on Kalama Energy Plant – January 5, 2009

April 6, 2009 Author: admin

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This is a 2544-ton-per-day coal gasification plant on the Wabash River in Indiana. (Photo: Department of Energy)

Our efforts to block the coal fired power plant in Kalama have been successful. In their meeting held on September 9, 2008, the State of Washington Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council announced that The Pacific Mountain Energy Center in Kalama is being redesigned as the Kalama Energy Project. The newly renamed project will eliminate all the gasification facilities originally planned for the site and run exclusively on natural gas. [Read More...]

PRESS RELEASE: ENVIRONMENTAL GROUPS CHALLENGE PROPOSED CLIMATE-POLLUTING, COAL-FUELED POWER PLANT IN KALAMA, WA – October 3, 2007

April 5, 2009 Author: admin

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Posted 12:15 PM, October 3, 2007

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

October 2, 2007

Contacts:
Brett VandenHeuvel, Columbia Riverkeeper. 503 224-3240. bv@columbiariverkeeper.org
Dvija Michael Bertish, Rosemere Neighborhood Association.

Environmental Groups Challenge Proposed Climate Polluting, Coal Fueled, Power Plant in Kalama, WA.

Seeking to stop a power plant that would spew millions of tons of toxic greenhouse gasses and other contaminants into Washington State skies, Columbia Riverkeeper, Willapa Audubon Society, and Rosemere Neighborhood Association have been granted the legal status to intervene in the permitting process for Energy Northwest’s proposed 680-megawatt coal-fueled Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) power plant in Kalama. A total of six environmental groups will intervene in objection to the proposed coal-fueled power plant, along with the State Attorney General’s Office and the Washington State Department of Ecology. [Read More...]

ROSEMERE NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION NEWSLETTER – SEPTEMBER 2007

April 5, 2009 Author: admin

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2007 NEWSLETTER

SEPTEMBER 2007 NEWSLETTER

PROPOSED COAL-BURNING POWER PLANT

On September 20, 2007, representatives of Columbia Riverkeeper, Willapa Audubon Society, and the Rosemere Neighborhood Association, along with a number of other concerned citizens, attended a public hearing held by Washington’s Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council to voice their opinions about Energy Northwest’s proposed Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) power plant in Kalama, WA. The council took comments from the public on Energy Northwest’s greenhouse gas “sequestration plan” (view the plan at http://http:www.esfec.wa.gov/pmec.shtml). [Read More...]

Speak Out Against the Proposed Coal Power Plant – September 18, 2007

April 5, 2009 Author: admin

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Please join Columbia Riverkeeper, Willapa Hills Audubon Society, and the Rosemere Neighborhood Association to:

Say no to more water and air pollution and increased global warming!

The Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council is holding a public hearing:
September 20, 2007, 6:30 P.M.
Kalama Community Building, 126 North Second Street, Kalama, Washington

Please attend. The Council will take comments on Energy Northwest’s greenhouse gas “sequestration plan” for the proposed Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) power plant in Kalama, which would be a major new industrial polluter on the Columbia River. [Read More...]