Yesterday, January 27th, The Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals (LUBA) issued its opinion on the Bradwood Landing Project Consolidated Land Use Application striking down 19 arguments made by Columbia Riverkeepers.
In a major blow to the opposition, LUBA agreed on all points with the County’s analysis in granting a variance for upgrades to enhance the safety of Clifton Road, the terminal access road for the public, including first responders, employees and local residents.
“Today’s 50-page LUBA decision is well reasoned and supported by an exhaustive record comprising 10,000 pages of analysis and studies,” NorthernStar Natural Gas Senior Vice President for External Relations Joe Desmond countered. “By siding with the County’s conclusions in nearly every instance, LUBA has reaffirmed that the County’s original approval was well founded and supported by the record. We are confident the remaining two items remanded by LUBA can be successfully resolved. Today’s decision moves our project closer to providing a much needed economic boost to Clatsop County and helping to stabilize the region’s long-term energy costs.”
When issuing its final opinion and order, LUBA addresses the issues presented in the Petition for Review, setting forth the reasons for its ruling. The order will end with one of the following actions:
• “Affirm” (uphold) the challenged decision;
• “Reverse” (overrule) the challenged decision;
• “Remand” the challenged decision (return it to the local government or special district for further action);
• “Dismiss” the appeal; or in special circumstances
• “Transfer” the appeal to the circuit court per ORS 19.230(4), a Motion to Transfer must be filed by the requesting party.
Two challenged land use decisions were remanded back to Clatsop County to fix. One dealing with clarifying a definition when using the word “protect,” and the other relating to the criteria used to determine the size of a facility.
The Columbia Riverkeepers (CRK) called the LUBA decision a victory. In a press release CRK stated that LUBA had “overturned Clatsop County’s decision to approve the Bradwood Landing liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal and pipeline.” CRK further stated that the LUBA decision halts the Bradwood Landing project in its tracks and “further invalidated Bradwood’s land use permits.”
Recently, however, CRK learned that their assertion that the defeated referendum 4-131 would stop the Bradwood Landing project “in its tracks” and from being issued any further permits was not true, either.
Columbia Riverkeepers, under then director, Brent Foster (currently on staff with Oregon Attorney General Kroger), dispersed fliers to voters opposing referendum 4-131 regarding upholding a land use law. Stating it was dealing with LNG pipelines in parks only, and had nothing to do with the Bradwood Landing project, the fliers stated that even those who were for LNG didn’t want LNG pipelines in their parks.
Within days of the defeat of the referendum on September 16, CRK sent a letter to Oregon’s Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) stating that because of the defeated referendum DEQ must halt processing all permits for Bradwood Landing. Columbia Riverkeeper spokesperson, Olivia Schmidt, appeared at numerous Clatsop County Board of County Commissioner meetings. Schmidt could be heard yelling from the audience, “you’re out of order,” at the Commissioners during meetings because they had not yet responded to a query initiated by CRK from the Department of Justice on behalf of DEQ.
Columbia Riverkeepers finally received a response from the Department of Justice in its quest to have the Clatsop County Board of County Commissioners sanctioned in some way.
Brett [VandenHuevel],
You have asked how DEQ plans to respond to Clatsop County’s delay in answering my October 10th letter. That letter, as you know, asked the County to update the information in its LUCS in response to the successful referral of the County amendment to the OPR zone. This issue is important because a portion of the proposed pipeline (approximately .7 of a mile) lies within the OPR zone. The pending application for Section 401 certification is affected by the referral and the same would be true for a future application to register under the NPDES general permit (1200-C) for construction of the pipeline.
DEQ is aware the County Commission directed planning staff to temporarily withhold a response to the letter. I also sent a similar request to Northern Star and the Company also has asked DEQ for more time to respond. My assumption is that both the County and Northern Star want to find out how LUBA will rule on the validity of the other land use changes before responding. My understanding is that LUBA should make a decision within the next few weeks.
At this point in time, DEQ does not intend to take any action based on the lack of response from the County or Northern Star. As noted above, it is DEQ’s view that this land use issue affects only a portion of the proposed pipeline and at this point Section 401 certification is the only pending application that would be affected by the LUCS. There is a great amount of material that DEQ must review before denial or issuance of certification and much of that work is focused on the impacts of the terminal and associated dredging. While the environmental impacts associated with the pipeline are also substantial, DEQ is not currently focused on those issues, so it is not yet burdened by the lack of a response.
We anticipate that we will have a responses from the County and Northern Star later this month and, if so, that will be acceptable to DEQ. If DEQ doesn’t get responses within this period, we will let the County and Northern Star know of our concerns. DEQ believes that it is important for the County to supplement the LUCS, but under ORS 197.180 and applicable implementing rules DEQ can make its own findings on this issue if the County chooses not to respond.
Larry Knudsen, Assistant Attorney General
Columbia Riverkeepers and other opponents of the Bradwood project contend that the terminal and pipeline would kill endangered salmon, increase foreign fossil fuel dependence, and impose eminent domain on small private landowners.
Bradwood Landing counters that their Salmon Enhancement Initiative (SEI) at $59 million represents the largest private commitment to improve watershed health on the Lower Columbia River. Bradwood plans on obtaining its LNG from Australia, Indonesia and possibly from Alaska. Eminent domain has not entered the picture for the Bradwood holding terminals as it is all being built on private land held by one property owner.
According to Columbia Riverkeepers press release Cheryl Johnson, a 30-year resident of Clatsop County and a volunteer Estuary Coordinator for Columbia Riverkeeper, remained firm that the Bradwood LNG project should not move forward. “LUBA’s decision only adds to the fact that the people of Clatsop County have spoken and spoken clearly: we oppose Bradwood LNG.”
Peter Huhtala, Astoria resident and Executive Director of the Columbia River Business Alliance, stated, “LNG is bad for business in Clatsop County. Not only is LNG more expensive for businesses than domestic natural gas, but relying on Russia and the Middle East for gas supplies creates instability that we just don’t need.”
A regional analysis of the effects of increased natural gas supply from a Columbia River LNG terminal by University of Oregon economist Dr. Phil Romero, showed that Bradwood could reduce the wholesale cost of natural gas by 13 percent. Dr. Romero’s analysis showed this decrease in energy costs would help support the creation of between 5,100 and 20,300 jobs.
“Construction of the Bradwood terminal would put hundreds of people to work providing a new source of natural gas to meet the region’s energy needs,” said Desmond. “While there’s no silver bullet to meet all of the region’s energy needs, clean-burning natural gas can provide a bridge to the renewable energy future we all want.”
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