Just like any city movers and the shakers operate behind the scenes. however projects of this magnitude being pursued without full public consideration smells of desperation and shortsightedness. I along with many of my fellow citizens were astonished to learn of the scope and risk involved in these two massive projects and equally astonished that we have not heard more news of these planned constructions before. In my curiosity to learn more about this I contacted Claudia Reidener who provided me with following information.
“The port of Tacoma is proposing two projects:
1) LNG (already underway with approval) Liquefied Natural Gas export facility proposed by Bellevue-base Australia owned Puget Sound Energy (PSE). The proposal is for a 180 foot tall gas tanks with liquefied gas (at MINUS 260 F). This facility is solely use to store large quantities, for export, to sell later and to fuel one company’s ships (Tote). International standards say they have to be three miles away from civilians. At a 2014 Plymouth WA LNG accident the fire marshal called a ¾ mile lethal zone around the facility and evacuated everyone within a two mile radius.
Close call Fire & Evacuation at LNG Facility
LNG Facility Construction & Risks
City of Tacoma LNG Facility Timeline & DatesNorth West Innovation Works LLC is a Chinese investment entity, proposing to build the largest methanol refinery in the world at the Port of Tacoma. As an LLC entity they minimize their risk leaving the Citizens of Tacoma with minimal recourse in the event of a catastrophic event.
2) NWIW (North West Innovation Works) wants to build the worlds largest methanol refinery facility. If built this refinery would consume 450 MW electricity from Tacoma Public Utilities, owned by the citizens of Tacoma. 450 MW can power 350,000 – 450,000 households according to the hydropower association. Tacoma has about 87,000 households. The refinery would also consume 14 to 21 million gallons of fresh water per DAY. All of Tacoma uses about 16 million gallons day. Also produced in the process 1.44 million gallons toxic waste water per day fed into our waste water treatment facility. Tagro is made from wastewater sludge. The refinery would also pump in 524 million cubic feet a DAY of fracked gas. The company piping in the gas is Williams Co, the same company that had the LNG accident just about a year ago (link above), and they have had gas pipeline accidents again and again and again. All these resources would be refined into highly volatile and toxic methanol, to be shipped via diesel powers massive chemical tankers to china to be turned into plastics. They are proposing to store 300,000 metric tanks on site, in above ground tanks. NWIW never built anything, anywhere. AS a corporate structure they tend to re-incorporate frequently to avoid responsibility down the line. Their maximum liability insurance is 50 million, plus 25 million environmental damage.”
City of Tacoma Proposed Methanol Facility Dates & Information
No Water for Methanol Facebook Page
To date the only long-term benefit of these facilities that I am aware of is the creation of a meager 200 permanent jobs after construction, and somehow this will reduce greenhouse emissions by allowing china to burn less coal? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
– Oliver Doriss
9 Comments
I don’t know why it still shocks me when Tacoma, and Pierce County in general, are once again treated as a toxic dumping ground. It’s almost as if there is an unspoken attitude that it doesn’t matter because they’ll be grateful for blue collar jobs. That is the justification for every dangerous and polluting decision made by the State, County, and City, leaders. Sure, there are blue collar jobs around the Tideflats, but there is also an extraordinarily high rate of illness and cancers in those workers when they hit their 50s.
Even if we don’t get that “big one” earthquake we’re supposed to expect, I can’t even fathom what the effects of a moderate earthquake would be on these projects. Two dangerous plants in an area expecting a huge quake? What could go wrong?
” The refinery would also pump in 524 million cubic feet a DAY of fracked gas” Can you share the source for this stat. Trying to estimate carbon footprint. Thanks.
This info was sourced from http://redlinetacoma.org/scoping-issues/
Has anyone considered that this port sits in a very populated area? There are at least 9 schools within the 3 mile blast rang, six of those are Tacoma Public Schools. Our kids will have to ride a bus past these two explosive plants, twice a day, every day, just to get to High School. Sometimes more with activities and sports. THIS IS NOT THE PORT FOR THESE TYPES OF PLANTS! It is way too populated! We are outraged that we are just learning about this now and had no say in the process. There should be a law against putting these types of plants so close to schools, neighborhoods, museums, businesses and people in general.
By the way, those schools, in the blast zone, include Stadium HS, SOTA HS, UW Tacoma, Meeker Middle, Brown’s Point ES, Crescent Heights ES, NE Tacoma ES, and Seabury, along with many preschools. That alone is several thousand kids!
Can you explain what the graphic means? I’ve been trying to find out where it came from and what the different zones mean. I’ve seen it referred to as the “blast zone” but I can’t find details about what will/may happen in the 3 zones in the case of an explosion. My family owns property Right on the edge of zone 2.
I pulled the graphic from http://redlinetacoma.org/. I believe it is centered on the LNG storage facility and displays evacuation zones should the catastrophic failure occur. I did not create the graphic however I believe the info is sourced from the LNG construction and risks link in the article above. -O