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

GATEWAY PACIFIC TERMINAL EIS SCOPING HEARING VOL. I
COURT REPORTER: GWEN BRASS PROCEEDING DATE: October 27, 2012
Page 75
perspective can be lost in bluster. The proposed coal terminal
at Cherry Point would disrupt ancestral burial grounds of the
Lummi people. That alone should end this project.
Huge tankers would disrupt herring spawning grounds,
further decimated Chinook salmon which feed on them and so
important to the Orca whale.
A tanker accident here or further north would be
devastating. There have been 17 coal derailments in the U.S.
and Western Canada this year, including over 300 cars and 2
deaths. Global warming contributes to steel tracks buckling.
The rosy picture of this project being projected by
Goldman Sachs, Warren Buffet, Peabody Coal, and SS Marine
doesn't match reality. Accidents happen.
I urge the Army Corps of Engineers to take a global
perspective. Study how this project would affect global
warming. Consider the blow back effect of burning coal in Asia
dropping into the Pacific, raising its acidity and adding to
the effects of coal trains here.
Be sensitive to the Lummi Tribe and their ancestral
burial grounds. Study the effect to herring spawning grounds,
salmon stocks, and the Orca whale --
MR. STURTEVANT: Thank you for your comment.
56, 57, and 58.
THE SPEAKER: I'm Daimon Sweeney. I live in
Fairhaven. I support many of the ideas that have been