Public Hearing - EISs for the Proposed Gateway Pacific Terminal ...

11/3/2012
1 make the best decision.
2 ERIC ADELBERGER: I'm a retired professor of
3 physics at the UW. I am very aware of the problem of
4 improbable events with terrible consequences, which is
5 what would happen were there to be some mishap with these
6 giant ships.
7 Our history has been pretty poor in that. We were
8 told that Prince William Sound, that that was all going
9 to be fine, and then we had the Exxon Valdez disaster,
10 and we're still recovering from that.
11 We were told that drilling in the Gulf was fine. We
12 had all the latest safety stuff, blah, blah, blah, and we
13 saw with what happened there.
14 So I think that any study has to really take very
15 seriously the possibility of very severe impacts, even if
16 they're low probability because we have a big history of
17 underestimating these, and I think that's a key issue.
18 Thank you.
19 LIBBY COOK: My name is Libby Cook. I live
20 on Orcas Island. I've lived on Orcas Island for 29
21 years. I'm a landscaper. I grew up in Alaska and worked
22 and lived in the Valdez area, so I'm aware of the oil
23 spill that happened in the Valdez area.
24 And because of that, I volunteer for IOSP, which is
25 called the Island Oil Spill Association. I've got over
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