Bellingham Comments from Digital Recorder - EISs for the Proposed ...

GATEWAY PACIFIC TERMINAL EIS SCOPING HEARING VOL. I
COURT REPORTER: GWEN BRASS PROCEEDING DATE: October 27, 2012
Page 99
alignment through the center of the city as a serious potential
impediment to their desires to respond efficiently and quickly
when needed.
Imagine, if you will, the Bellingham Coast Guard
station goes out in the San Juans and they rescue a fishing
boat crew and they bring them back to the Coast Guard facility
expecting to be met by a Medic-1 ambulance and EMTs. But that
ambulance is waiting at the crossing for a mile-long
slow-moving coal train to go past. Once the ambulance breaks
free of the coal train, gets to the Coast Guard's station, and
loads the victims and is heading back to the hospital, they are
delayed again by a slow-moving southbound empty mile-long coal
train.
Same scenario for a heart attack victim at the ferry
-- Alaska ferry terminal building or an injured person at
Boulevard Park or anyone else on the west side of the tracks
who needs help when all of the city's police, fire, and Medic-1
response resources are on the west side of the tracks.
So here's what the EIS has to address: What is the
likely number of calls for emergency response service to come
from the segregated west side area of the city?
Number 2, how many of those calls are likely to experience
delays caused by the coal trains?
Number 3, how long of a duration are those delays
likely to be? Because in the business of the fire department,