Please provide written testimony to DEQ asking them to deny NEXT’s 401 Water Quality Certification in Port Westward along the Columbia River. Testimony is due by October 25th at 5 pm using DEQ’s online link: https://ydo.oregon.gov/pub/pub-rcd/submittals/review/3/67628;tab=notice. DEQ’s process in this case has been flawed, providing incomplete information and rushing to a decision without adequate public engagement, ignoring the voices of the people most impacted, including residents of Port Westward and the Estuary who rely on fishing and clean water for crops and their livelihoods. Public notice and basic project information have been wholly inadequate.
DEQ would be authorizing a major new polluter in Oregon—a massive refinery that would emit more than 1 million tons of greenhouse gas pollution per year becoming one of Oregon’s largest emitters, using vast quantities of fracked gas and unsustainable feedstocks delivered by long trains from half-way across the country. DEQ is violating its own rules by proposing to give a vague permit, with inadequate study and information, to an out-of-state developer with a problematic track record, on a site with major seismic risks, unstable soils, and tenuous dikes. NEXT and DEQ acknowledge that groundwater problems, safety, and geotechnical issues are not fully addressed or even understood– issues that should be fully evaluated in an EIS. DEQ is rushing to a decision prior to seeing an EIS, which is not consistent with DEQ’s approach on other mega-projects, and frankly unfathomable.
NEXT would violate the Clean water Act, but DEQ seems ready to authorize it anyway despite community concerns and knowledge about water at Port Westward, flood and drainage systems, and how the community and Estuary rely on water that will likely become polluted by NEXT. Groundwater levels are too high for the project to work as proposed, but NEXT says DEQ’s backup plan (a liner underneath facilities) isn’t feasible. NEXT admits the project will adversely harm fish habitat, so why would DEQ authorize something harming beneficial uses, species, and ecosystems? NEXT will kill salmon and pollute their habitat, harm farmers and farmland as well as the Monastery, pollute Port Westward and threaten the entire estuary. DEQ needs to better manage this process for the public good and deny the 401 Certification. More information can be found at both DEQ and Columbia Riverkeeper websites. Or attend the Rumble on the River webinar, Wednesday, October 16th from 7 – 8 PM.
