With the Port of Tacoma signing a lease with a Chinese-backed company to build a methanol plant on Commencement Bay, the time for the public to make its voice heard is now.
Construction on the plant is set to begin in 2017, and upon completion, the 125-acre factory will be the largest of its kind in the world. With four natural gas lines feeding it with natural gas, the massive chemical production plant is estimated to eat up 10.7 million gallons of fresh water every day, and studies at existing methanol plants reveal formaldehyde and benzene could be released into the air as pollution.
When the lease was signed in April 2014, the news seemed to slip by quietly, and the project gained the support of Washington Governor Jay Inslee, who said the plant would “boost our clean energy future,” according to the Tacoma News Tribune. Meanwhile, the exact environmental impact of the plant is still largely unknown. The city of Tacoma has begun a scoping process to determine what will be included in the environmental study, and Vashon residents should make their voices heard.
For many on Vashon, the memories of the ASARCO plume that spewed arsenic onto Maury Island and Vashon’s south end are vivid, and the cleanup is ongoing. There is a responsibility to ensure that nothing contaminates this area again. While environmental activists say the scale of pollution from the proposed methanol plant, if any, will not likely be anything like ASARCO, the scoping process can ensure that the plant is investigated from every angle.
The plans for this plant deserve conversation, oversight and accountability by the public. The area’s clear and fresh water that runs down from the Cascades as the snow melts should not be sucked dry by a chemical plant. Puget Sound residents who choose to live here for the unpolluted air and proximity to environmental beauty should not have to suffer with drought conditions and potential harmful pollution for the sake of a chemical used to make cheap plastic goods.
Ryan Cruz, research assistant at Tacoma’s Citizens for a Healthy Bay, said that Tacoma has long been a hub for manufacturing and industry, but that it is finally starting to clean up the damage that has resulted from decades of heavy industry. He said that the methanol plant could be a step backward in the efforts to clean up the city, the port and areas surrounding Vashon.
“We’ve had horrible pollution from ASARCO, Kaiser (aluminum smelter) and Occidental (Chemical Corporation),” Cruz said. “It seems like (Tacoma) always gets the short end of the stick industrially, and it’s so bad.”
Jan. 21 marks the first of two public meetings set to gather feedback on the proposed plant. Written and oral questions and comments will be accepted beginning at 5 p.m. at the Tacoma convention center, 1500 Broadway in downtown Tacoma. A second meeting has been scheduled for Feb. 16. A time and location will be posted on the city website.
