State Delays Port of Morrow Coal Project Permit

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.

Deal Signed for Oregon Coal Export Barges

One of numerous coal export projects proposed for the Pacific Northwest took a step forward this week as the Port of Morrow, Oregon signed letters of intent with two manufacturing companies to build 20 barges that would be used to aid in the export of coal from Oregon to Asia.

Under the agreements, Gunderson Marine and Vigor Industrial would earn more than $75 million to build the barges for coal mining and export company Ambre Energy.

“We need projects like this in Oregon,” Gunderson CEO Bill Furman said. “This is an amazing opportunity.”

The so-called Morrow Pacific Project, which still requires financing and permits, calls for coal to be imported from Montana and Wyoming via railcars, to a transloading facility at the Port of Morrow.

It would then be loaded onto the enclosed barges and shipped down the Columbia River to the Port of St. Helens, where it would be loaded onto cargo ships bound for Japan and other Asian countries.

The plan is one of half a dozen coal export projects proposed for at or near ports in Oregon and Washington, including at the Port of Longview, where Millennium Bulk Terminals has applied for permits to build a $600 million terminal in a bid to become one of the largest coal exporters in North America. Coal companies have also submitted permits to build export terminals at or near Port Westward near Clatskanie and Port of Bellingham. Two other proposals have surfaced in Coos Bay and Hoquiam.

There’s been opposition to some projects by various environmental groups worried about the potential of escaping coal dust, but supporters cite the local and regional jobs that would be created among the reasons to move forward to the projects.

Hundreds of local workers are expected to be employed during construction, according to the project applicant, Ambre Energy.

In a prepared statement released July 30, the two contracting companies said that Gunderson Marine would be paid more than $55 million to build 15 of the barges, while Vigor Industrial would receive more than $20 million to build five barges.

Ambre Energy says it expects construction of the barges to begin by mid-2013.

EPA Concerned About Port Coal Project

A Port of Morrow, Oregon project that would ship coal to Asia could potentially have significant impacts to both humans and the environment in the area according to a letter sent by the US Environmental Protection Agency to the Army Corps of Engineers, which is overseeing the project.

In a letter sent to the Corps earlier this month, the EPA said it was concerned about potential diesel pollution from the Morrow Pacific project causing damage to people, animals and their surroundings and recommended that the Corps conduct a broad and thorough analysis of any cumulative impacts the project could have.

The Morrow Pacific project is a planned $110 million coal transfer and off-loading facility at the port, which is located on the Columbia River in Morrow County, Oregon. Trains would carry up to eight million tons of coal a year from Montana and Wyoming to barges at the port. The coal would then be transferred to vessels at the Port St. Helens and shipped to Asian countries such as Japan and South Korea.

The facility, which would be run by a subsidiary of Ambre Energy North America, would create 25 jobs with wages and benefits of $2.7 million per year with average salaries of $50,000 to $90,000, according to Ambre.

Morrow Pacific is just one of about eight coal-to-Asia shipping projects in the works or under review in the Pacific Northwest, including at the Port of St. Helens and Port of Coos Bay in Oregon and the Port of Grays Harbor in Washington.