Citing ongoing local concerns and regulatory
obstacles, BHP has announced that it is no longer pursuing plans for a potash
export facility at the Port of Grays Harbor.
The company, which had been envisioning a
facility at the port’s Terminal 3 since 2015, withdrew its permit applications
earlier this month and will instead shift its focus to developing at Fraser
Surrey Docks in British Columbia and do its due diligence on other shortlisted
terminals, according to the port.
“While we are incredibly disappointed to lose
this significant opportunity not just for our community, but for our state and
our nation, I am grateful to BHP for the lessons we have learned about what
community engagement and the environmental permitting process can and should
look like,” Port Executive Director Gary Nelson said in a statement. “This was
our project to lose and unfortunately, as I have said many times in the past,
time kills deals. For rural economic development to thrive, we have to be able
to provide prospective investors and employers with clearly defined requirements
along with timelines for the path forward. After five years, we collectively
were not able to do that for the BHP project.”
Terminal 3’s industrial property and its
proximity to rail and deep-water access were attractive features for BHP, which
spent years conducting “geotechnical, environmental, cultural and other site
investigations” related to its proposed facility. But regulatory issues
hampered progress.
“We will also look to work with our tribal
leaders and state and federal elected officials to help improve the current
permitting processes so that businesses like BHP, and REG and Contanda before
them, don’t have to waste multiple years and millions of dollars on a process
that has no end,” said Port Harbor Commission President Stan Pinnick.
