Crude-by-rail opponents barraged Hoquiam City Council members with questions at Monday night’s meeting as to why the city wasn’t doing more to stop the project from coming to the Harbor.
The concerns from residents come after a train in Mount Carbon, W. Va., carrying 3 million gallons of crude oil derailed and exploded last week. A train in Timmins, Ontario, also derailed nearly two weeks ago, spilling thousands of gallons of crude oil.
Some residents fear the same might happen on Grays Harbor.
Lisa Marie, a Hoquiam resident, started the discussion by asking each council member to provide his or her stance on the issue. Five of the city’s 12 council members responded, three of whom said they were against the project.
“I’ve been asked quite a few times to take a strong position one way or another,” said Ward 4 Councilman Ben Winkelman, adding that he’s learned a lot about the process over the years. “I’m not ready to put on a button or hold up a sign, but I’m still getting informed.”
Ward 1 Councilman John Pellegrini said he would like to see a draft of the environmental impact statement that the state Department of Ecology is spearheading before deciding.
A draft impact statement for the three oil terminals was originally slated for release in March, but has since been pushed back to a June release, City Administrator Brian Shay said.
Richard Pennant of Ward 2, after telling the council he was “adamantly against” crude-by-rail, expressed irritation over his colleagues’ side-stepping of the issue.
“Anybody that’s not answering — how long’s it going to take you to make up your mind?” he asked the other members. “This has been on the table for a couple of years now. I think everybody has had enough time to look into it. It’s a fair question for the people to ask and it warrants an answer from everybody here.”
Ward 5 Councilwoman Denise Anderson and Jasmine Dickhoff of Ward 2 also voiced opposition to oil projects.
Following the poll, Marie criticized members who didn’t respond.
“I think that people who elected you into your positions would be quite disappointed to know that you wouldn’t answer a simple question,” she said.
Diane Wolfe of Hoquiam then asked if the city would vote to deny the permits for the three oil terminals that bulk liquid companies at the Port plan to build in the coming years.
Shay said the council does not have the authority to deny permits, which are considered by city employees, not the council. Permits to build the terminals, Shay said, were issued about three years ago.
After the meeting, Wolfe said she thought the city issued those permits without considering what could happen after.
“The original permits that they’re talking about that staff issued were done arbitrarily and capriciously without sufficient evidence to make an accurate decision as to whether or not they were in compliance with Hoquiam city code,” she said, adding that she wished the city would revoke the permits.
Shay said the city can’t do that based on political reasons, regardless of what the permit is for, adding that doing so would open the city to lawsuits from those seeking the permits.
“It cannot be just because we simply don’t want something,” he said to Wolfe.
Wolfe, following the meeting, said the city was likely to be sued regardless of how officials proceeded.
“At this point, their two options in court are to either be sued by the companies that are proposing to make a great deal of money off of the degradation of Hoquiam and the whole of Grays Harbor,” she said, “or being sued by the citizens of Hoquiam and Grays Harbor.”
Legislative action can be taken to deny bulk liquid handling facilities in the city’s industrial zone, Shay said.
But even if the city changed that code, the applications for the terminal already in place would still be grandfathered in.
Others speculated that the permits were offered as a money-maker for the city — a claim Shay also disputed.
At the end of the public comment, Mayor Jack Durney pointedly told residents that the city has maintained a neutral stance on crude-by-rail, and couldn’t regulate its activity on the Harbor.
“The city of Hoquiam will play this down the middle because we are in a regulatory position. We do not regulate interstate commerce,” he said. “We cannot stand and tell the railroads that they can’t haul a product that, I guess, is legal.”
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