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 134
1 My concern is the cumulative effect the pollution
2 levels have to humankind and the effects of that coal and
3 proposed coal terminal on the local inhabitants and the
4 environment.
5 The geographical proximity needs to be
6 considered. The cumulative effect of having these three
7 large industries within just a few miles of each other has
8 to be addressed together when building the largest coal
9 terminal in the United States.
10 Anything short of this, would misrepresent the
11 true impact to the environment that this land-proposed coal
12 terminal would create. Each limited industry may be just
13 what would create a critical, unusual, and adverse health
14 impact by itself.
15 But the combined impact of all three of them,
16 being significant to endanger human and animal health, as
17 well as the natural environment, the soil, water, the food
18 resources, et cetera. There are more than two issues --
19 systems, species, can become a possibility in a linear or
20 nonlinear or chaotic; meaning that small effects can magnify
21 greatly throughout in a chaotic fashion. Unlimited issues
22 due to soil deposits, due to small wrecks, and even small
23 deposits produce large and unpredictable effects.
24 Consider, for instance, the cumulative effects of
25 toxins and heavy elements and other toxins coming from all