This past week, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers determined it would permit Glacier’s proposed barge-loading facility within Maury’s sensitive shoreline. The agency refused to require a federal environmental impact statement. With the federal government having listed the chinook as a threatened species and our beloved orcas as endangered, this decision casts a major shadow over efforts to recover these species and Puget Sound. Since the 1970s, scientists have been waiting for those in power to just say “no” and to really commit to protecting the Sound. The crisis in the Sound, under the Corps’ “watchful” eye, continues to grow.
For 11 years, statewide environmental organizations have battled Glacier’s proposed barging operation and massive strip mine on Maury Island. Nearshore habitat at the site — which includes a juvenile chinook salmon migratory corridor, herring spawning nursery and winter feeding grounds for the southern resident orcas — is incredibly valuable to the ecosystem. The value of the shorelines of Vashon and Maury Island to the future of Puget Sound have been documented by the National Marine Fisheries Service, a federal agency.
The voluminous pages of “mitigation” and testing required by multiple agencies boldly contradict the concept that Glacier and the Corps present that there are “no environmental impacts” from this massive proposal. Mitigation has been relied upon for the past three decades to protect fish and marine mammals, as well as to “restore” or compensate for habitat destroyed by such operations. It has failed. However, mitigation is a convenient tool for an agency that does not want to say no to a proposal and face the wrath of a multinational corporation’s cadre of lawyers.
Puget Sound’s condition today, as well as the ongoing listing of new species, is clear and absolute evidence of the folly of the Corps’ decision. The mitigation upon which it relies is largely managed and overseen by none other than the corporate multinational. The agencies have little enforcement staff or ability to monitor the requirements they place upon such a massive corporation. Should the Corps take action to enforce the conditions it places on Glacier, the multinational’s lawyers could and, in all likelihood, would push back.
In fact, at Glacier’s White River Quarry, it took more than five years for the corporation to address the wetland mitigation in its permits. Five years, with Glacier making numerous requests to rewrite the conditions and with the mitigation not being done as agreed to when the project was permitted. The Maury site is so much more complex that one can only wonder, when year five were to arrive, how many conditions designed to “protect the environment” would still be unmet. How many conditions would have been forgotten by the Corps?
So this week, the U.S. Army Corps threw down a gauntlet to the environmental community and to Islanders. Will we accept having Glacier build a massive industrial facility and rely upon mitigation that requires tugs and barges to be brought in — after construction — to determine what damage will occur to the nearshore? Will we accept the issuance of a permit based on an environmental impact statement that is eight years old?
The Corps indicated in its press release that it had determined this proposal would not damage the human environment. However, the dock is not just about affecting humans. This proposal affects the salmon migratory corridor and the Quartermaster herring stock, and it intends to continue to do “business as usual” instead of finally recognizing the peril facing Puget Sound.
I am asked is the battle over. The answer is no. The environmental community can proceed in federal courts to right this wrong, and it should do so. I admire Preserve Our Islands and People for Puget Sound, along with other environmental allies statewide, who continue to engage in this David vs. Goliath battle.
As we prepare for another round of “engagement” with the multinational, I am thankful that there are volunteers in this community who dedicate their lives to preserving our islands and protecting Puget Sound. Brenda Moore, Libby McLarty, J.W. Turner and now Amy Carey have each carried the torch as they served as president of Preserve Our Islands. Hundreds of other citizen volunteers have worked to provide data, communication, outreach and the foundation of operations for this effort.
We are fighting for Maury Island and so much more. Our statewide coalition of friends support the position that Maury Island is the “line in the sand” — a test as to whether we will stop the destruction of Puget Sound. This week the Corps failed that test.
Glacier’s proposal to barge away Maury Island cannot and should not occur, not now, not ever. The battle continues on, and I am proud to be part of it.
State Rep. Sharon Nelson represents the 34th Legislative District, which includes Burien, North Highline, Vashon and Maury Islands and West Seattle.
