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

GATEWAY PACIFIC TERMINAL EIS SCOPING HEARING VOL. II
COURT REPORTER: BETH DRUMMOND PROCEEDING DATE: October 27, 2012
Page 46
1 It's a big deal in my book. Many people live
2 here because of quality of life. We attract people from all
3 over the world because of our quality of life, and I'm
4 deeply concerned about the effects this terminal could have
5 on our quality of life.
6 We're talking about building a very large, new
7 waterfront. There's been six/seven years of work done on
8 that. That is on the west side of the railroad tracks.
9 We talk about large homes. Let's think about it
10 a little more clearly.
11 The Point Roberts boats have been moved because
12 of the coal dust. The facility right up here, has a program
13 of washing houses that are covered with coal dust. I think
14 we need to think about those things.
15 We're talking about commercial properties that
16 are on the west side of the tracks. How are those
17 properties going to be affected?
18 So it's not only residential, big residential
19 properties. It's commercial properties. It's -- not all
20 the railroad tracks go up along the waterfront. They go
21 through our county, and they go through other counties.
22 The number of trains; the traffic; the potential
23 pollution; and just the total effect, they need to be looked
24 at and assessed on the property values in our county.
25 Thank you very much.