For Immediate Release. April 12, 2010.
Contact: Brett VandenHeuvel, Director, Columbia Riverkeeper (503) 348-2436
Dan Serres, Conservation Director, Columbia Riverkeeper (503) 890-2441
Oregon Court Rejects Bradwood Landing LNG, Again
The Land Use Board of Appeals (LUBA) rejected Clatsop County’s approval of the Bradwood Landing liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal on the Columbia River.
LUBA found the LNG terminal violates state and county laws designed to protect endangered salmon and traditional fishing areas.
“This is a crushing defeat for Bradwood Landing. With the legal requirement to protect endangered salmon and traditional fishing areas, I can’t conceive of a way this LNG project moves forward,” stated Brett VandenHeuvel, Director of Columbia Riverkeeper, who argued the case to LUBA. “This is the second time we’ve won on these issues. Bradwood has run out of options.”
Long-time Columbia River commercial fisherman, Jack Marincovich stated, "No matter what Bradwood says, this project will harm salmon and set us back as fishermen. It's good to see the court stepping forward to protect salmon and fishermen."
“This is an important victory over LNG on the Columbia River. It not only makes the Bradwood project less viable, but it also sends a message to the other proposed LNG projects: destroying salmon habitat and the livelihoods that depend on them will be rejected,” stated Brian Pasko, Director of the Oregon Chapter of the Sierra Club.
In a concurring opinion LUBA stated, “the county must ensure that any damage to those resources will be no more than de minimis. In other words, any such damage must be trivial.” Bradwood Landing’s proposal to dredge 46 acres of critical salmon habitat
In addition, LUBA rejected Clatsop County’s decision that the LNG terminal was “small to moderate” in scale, as required by county law to protect the Bradwood area of the estuary.
“The Commissioners made a mockery out of county law. The unprecedented damage caused by the LNG terminal is far beyond small to medium,” stated Astoria resident and retired school librarian, Cheryl Johnson. LUBA found that the county erred by failing to consider the dredging area and construction areas. The county lost on this same issue before LUBA in 2008.
Petitioners include Columbia Riverkeeper, Columbia River Business Alliance, Oregon Chapter of the Sierra Club, and the Columbia River Clean Energy Coalition. After prevailing on the same claims in 2008, this is the second victory for petitioners. Houston-based NorthernStar Natural Gas proposed the Bradwood Landing LNG terminal, located 20 miles upstream from Astoria, Oregon, in 2005. Legal challenges and the inability to obtain needed state permits have significantly delayed the project.
Brett VandenHeuvel of Columbia Riverkeeper and Jan Wilson of the Western Environmental Law Center represented the successful petitioners.
5 comments:
And where is incumbent County Commission Chair Jeff Hazen on this....or anything.
Are people going to let him get away with saying nothing about anything.
His two big accomplishments, diving the community first with the DA pay debacle and now the LNG scam have now both been shown to be wrong from the get go.
Good question.
I've been, in an effort to be fair, trying to find campaign sites for Hazen, Raichl and Mushen, all encumbents, to post on this site but, have yet to find one.
Could it be that they all three are so jaded and confident in their posts that they feel it unnecessary to have to give their constiuents some input as to what they are all about?
Maybe Hazen feels, using his slim recall success, that being silent, on this one, will help him in his run to keep his seat as well.
Agree or disagree with their opponents but, there are some good candidates waiting to take them on and with the confidence that they can win.
I invite Hazen, Raichl, Mushen and Dunzer to share their vision as a County Commissioner with us.
this isn't anything but a pumped up rivercreeper press release. It means nothing. The county and the state will resolve the issue and move forward with the project.
Oh yeah....the State where the Governor and Attorney General and LUBA all have said no...no...no
And where is the "campaign" of County Commission Chair Jeff Hazen and all the muck-ups he's responsible for?
I got a bridge to sell anon and $10 million from a Nigerian banker too!
It will be built because the Feds want it to be built. It will be an important part of the regional energy infastructure for most of the current century. Who cares what a couple of politicians like the gov and attorney general say--politicians always change their mind in not so mysterious ways. There's too much money on the table for those clowns to have any long lasting impact--they're merely pandering to the special interest groups but in the end it will not matter and they will be gone anyway.
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