A draft outlining the scope of the environmental review to be conducted for a proposed methanol production plant on the Tacoma waterfront reveals a wide-ranging set of variables for the city to consider.

The proposed plant will be located on the Tacoma Tideflats on the site of the former Kaiser aluminum smelter, but the draft environmental impact study (EIS) shows the environmental effects to be considered could go far beyond Tacoma and the nearby waters.

According to the document, the environmental review will outline the effects of the production of methanol, along with “those associated with ocean  transport across the Pacific Ocean and the end use of methanol for plastics manufacturing.”

When the plant is completed, the methanol will be shipped to China where it will be used to make plastics.

However, just because the effects beyond the local area will be acknowledged does not mean said effects will be considered “in detail.”

For example, addressing air quality, one of the more sizeable entries in the draft, the report reads that the EIS must acknowledge far-reaching effects beyond the local area, but “not consider in detail the portions of the proposal that lay outside direct local causation.”

“Although the EIS will recognize each stage of the project, the EIS will not be designed to disclose every molecule of impact or capture every emission. That is an inefficient use of resources,” the draft states. “Rather, the EIS is to provide an adequate disclosure of the likely probable, significant adverse impacts stemming from or proximately caused by the proposal.”

This approach is called a “tiered approach,” meaning  that impacts at the site and areas closest to the site will be given the most attention.

Tacoma city officials have received more than 540 comments from the public in the past two months concerning the proposed plant — which would be the largest of its kind in the world — and its potential environmental impacts. A Jan. 21 public meeting in Tacoma to gather input for the draft environmental scope drew nearly 1,000 people, and hundreds more showed up for a similar meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 10. A large crowd is expected at the third and final public meeting at 5 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 24, at the Tacoma Convention Center.

Vashon’s environmental activist organization, the Backbone Campaign, has come out against the plant, and the organization’s executive director, Bill Moyer, has said he fears another Asarco-type situation.

Moyer and many other  members of the public at the meetings have called for the EIS to analyze the cumulative effects of the plant on surrounding areas, such as Vashon and the Kitsap Peninsula.

Many have also asked the city to consider and compare the environmental trade-off of cleaner burning natural gas with the effects of fracking to get such gas and transportation of the methanol across the Pacific

“Groundwater protection is a significant issue in natural gas fracking. An explanation of how the proposal contributes to those off-site groundwater impacts will be provided,” the draft document reports.

Another large issue surrounding the plant is water use. The Tacoma plant is expected to use 10.4 million gallons of water per day, enough to supply 26,000 homes, assuming average use of 400 gallons per day, according to the draft EIS. The final EIS is expected to address where the water will be drawn from, the degree to which it will impact existing and planned uses, and whether the plant’s usage will result in or exacerbate water shortages in the future, including during the summer months.

The final EIS is also expected to address the two other Northwest Innovation Works (NWIW) methanol plant proposals in the Pacific Northwest, one at the Port of Kalama and one at the Port of Saint Helens.

The final draft scope of the EIS review is expected in March. The final EIS is expected by late 2016 or early 2017.