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 124
1 and we are terrified in Birch Bay.
2 But I will follow the process and ask that you,
3 please, assess coal dust.
4 My biggest concern is that there will be 48
5 million tons of toxic -- toxic heavy metal weight coal dust
6 dumped near my home. I don't care if you dump 48 million
7 tons of peanuts near my home, I would be concerned.
8 But this is a toxic substance dumped near my
9 house, and I have a child, and I live in a retirement
10 community.
11 This is a social justice issue. It is being
12 dumped by retired folks, people who belong to the community.
13 And it is being dumped by a group of people who have already
14 lost 90 percent of their population in indigenous culture.
15 This is a huge social justice issue not to be overlooked.
16 In Tsawwassen, in 2001, they did a study. There
17 were 750 metric tons of fugitive coal dust that was released
18 into the air. That goes into the ground water; the Salish
19 Sea; the food that we eat; it goes into the livestock; and
20 the entire food chain.
21 And so this is a very foreseeable and real
22 problem, and unless SSA Marine has hired Santa Claus to pack
23 that coal dust into his mythical bag, then it will get into
24 the atmosphere. There's no way that 100 percent of that
25 coal dust will be contained and not get into the atmosphere.