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 56
1 the microphone. 30 and 31 you are at the desk.
2 Please state your name for the record.
3 THE SPEAKER: My name is Logan McKay. I'm on the
4 --
5 THE COURT REPORTER: Please speak into the
6 microphone.
7 THE SPEAKER: -- Western Washington University.
8 I've grown up in the Skagit Valley all of my
9 life, and I've spent a lot of my time hiking the mountains
10 and enjoying the dramatic views of Mount Baker and catching
11 salmon in the sound.
12 I'm afraid the Gateway Pacific Terminal is going
13 to change that. Along the train route, there's over 12
14 cities that have a population of over 50,000 people.
15 I want to know how many people are going to be
16 affected all the way along the rails that will have the
17 effects of coal dust; that a study by Norfolk Southern
18 Railroad concluded that 26 tons of coal can be lost per
19 train, which is leading to an average annual loss of over
20 142,000 tons all across the rail route.
21 If all of the coal that is proposed to be
22 exported through Gateway Pacific Terminal were loaded into
23 dump trucks and placed bumper-to-bumper, the lengths of
24 these trucks would be greater than the circumference of the
25 earth.