The Oregon Department of State Lands is temporarily putting
off a decision on whether to approve the construction of a dock that would be
utilized for coal shipments to Asia, the agency says.
According to State Lands Assistant Director Bill Ryan, the
department has delayed a decision until Sept. 1 to give the project’s owner,
Australia-based Ambre Energy, time to gather requested data.
The Morrow Pacific project is a proposed coal barging and
transshipping operation involving two industrial sites on the Columbia River.
The proposed Coyote Island Terminal would be capable of unloading coal from
incoming trains using the Port of Morrow’s existing rail loop.
The Union Pacific transcontinental rail line provides the
Port of Morrow with a direct rail link to coal mines in Montana, Wyoming,
Colorado and Utah, including mining operations co-owned by Ambre Energy.
The coal would be stored in covered warehouses before being
barged 200 miles downriver to a second site at Port Westward that’s capable of
receiving Panamax class ocean-going vessels.
Under the proposal, the coal barges arriving from Coyote
Island Terminal would be transloaded via a floating transloading facility
directly onto ships berthed at the Port Westward dock.
However, the state has questions regarding impacts on
Columbia River fisheries, water quality and overall need for the shipments. Oregon
Gov. John Kitzhaber has expressed reservations about the local environmental
impacts of the coal shipments and the global impacts more coal burning might
cause.
Ambre Energy says it anticipates shipping about 3.5 million
metric tons of coal per year down the Columbia River initially and about eight
million metric tons of coal per year at full capacity.
