A lease that the Port of Seattle signed months ago to house
seasonal moorage of a drilling rig and accompanying tugboats at Terminal 5 is
not valid and has to be reworked, Seattle Mayor Ed Murray said May 4.
The mayor’s statement came the same day that the Seattle
Department of Planning and Development (DPD) released an interpretation
regarding the proposed use of Terminal 5. The DPD concluded that an additional
use permit is required for the proposed seasonal moorage of a drilling rig and
accompanying tugboats. Reports have indicated that two drilling rigs are
destined for Seattle: the Polar Pioneer and the Noble
Discoverer. The information provided by the port indicates that just
one, the Polar Pioneer, would moor at Terminal 5.
Under the terms of the lease, Foss would have been able to
use the premises specifically as a transport facility in which quantities of
goods or container cargo are stored without undergoing any manufacturing
process, are transferred to other carriers or are stored outdoors in order to
transfer them to other locations.
On Feb. 9, the port signed the two-year lease with Foss
Maritime, giving Foss the right to short-term moorage and vessel operations
along 50 acres at the port’s 156-acre Terminal 5, which is currently undergoing
renovation.
On March 2 however, a coalition of five environmental groups
filed a challenge against the port’s lease on the grounds that the lease would
change the use of Terminal 5 by converting it into a homeport for Shell’s
Arctic drilling fleet.
The mayor made the lease denial announcement during the
Climate Solutions annual breakfast.
“I expect the port to obtain all required city permits
before any moorage or work begins at T5 on off-shore oil drilling equipment.
While requiring a new permit may not stop the port’s plans, it does give the
port an opportunity to pause and rethink this issue,” Murray said. “I urge the
port to consider: is this really the right use of Terminal 5, even for the short
term? Does this use reflect the businesses of the future we want in Seattle?”
“This is an opportunity for the port and all of us to make a
bold statement about how oil companies contribute to climate change, oil spills
and other environmental disasters – and reject this short-term lease,” the
mayor said.
