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 90
1 impacts on the entire food chain. Eelgrass can be dug,
2 crushed or buried in silt by construction of a pier. If
3 even if it's not killed outright, eelgrass needs sunlight to
4 survive. The shade from an 800-foot-long-pier and the
5 turbidity of the water is continually stirred up by the
6 ships' propellers; both prevent the sunlight from
7 penetrating.
8 And if that isn't enough, the eelgrass can be
9 disturbed by invasive species from ships' ballasts water.
10 I'm really concerned about this.
11 If the orca are forced to relocate because they
12 don't have enough salmon to eat, the economic impacts of
13 this project could be enormous. It will affect people's
14 livelihood, specifically. The commercial fishing industry,
15 Indian fisheries, and um -- (timer interrupts speaker)
16 whoops.
17 MS. STRAUSZ-CLARK: 54 and 55 and 56, please come
18 to the desk. 54 please state your name for the record.
19 THE SPEAKER: Seth Vidman. I work at Western
20 Washington University as our campus sustainability manager.
21 The concepts in practice of sustainability are
22 part of our core mission. We made a commitment in 2006 to
23 achieve zero carbon emissions by 2050. This is something
24 that's assisted by state laws introducing carbon emissions
25 for state institutions.