After a vote at the April 21 OKNA general meeting, the following letter was sent to the Portland City Council in opposition to the proposed Pembina propane terminal in North Portland.
To: Portland City Council
From: Overlook Neighborhood Association
Re: Proposed Pembina propane terminal in North Portland
Dear Mayor Hales and Commissioners Saltzman, Novick, Fritz and Fish:
The Overlook Neighborhood Association urges you not to allow Pembina Pipeline and Port of Portland to proceed with construction of a proposed propane terminal at this time. We specifically ask that you not permit a pipeline across public land currently set aside for conservation. The public and the city lack sufficient information to judge important elements of this project. What information is available raises several serious issues that conflict with the goals and safety of our community.
The terminal would be a safety threat to North Portland neighborhoods and other parts of the city. To state the obvious, propane is explosive. It would be transported by rail and handled in a facility that, while no doubt designed to be safe, still would not be immune to accidents, human error and sabotage. It requires little imagination to envision scenarios in which an explosion causes immediate death and damage in the vicinity as well as more extensive health and property damage as toxins and fire spread. Pembina’s own worst-case scenario describes a storage tank containing 23 million gallons of propane sending a flammable vapor cloud over North Portland or Vancouver.
Meanwhile, trains with 100 tanker cars full of propane would arrive every other day. America has been fortunate that accidents involving trains carrying volatile fossil fuels so far have occurred mostly in rural areas. If an explosion were to occur in our dense, urban environment, the result would be far more tragic. Yet because rail safety ultimately falls on the rail companies, not Pembina, there has been inadequate analysis of this safety threat. No comprehensive analysis of train safety is available.
The lack of information extends to water transportation, too. Ships will carry millions of gallons of propane from the terminal every month. The Coast Guard is studying this issue, but its report will not be complete until later this summer.
The council should not make a decision without these important reviews. Many of your constituents’ jobs and the broader Portland economy depend heavily on the health of our waterways and environment. You and the public deserve to know all of the potential risks and benefits of the project. Only then can our community make a realistic assessment, not one based on speculation, and decide whether to proceed.
On top of concerns about inadequate review, this project runs counter to the very character of our community. Portland is better than this.
In 1993, Portland became the first city in the country to adopt a local strategy to cut carbon emissions. The city has since been recognized as a leader in addressing climate change. The draft 2015 Climate Action Plan that you are considering will keep Portland on that path. Under that plan, the city will address the serious threat of climate change by reducing carbon emissions in our community by 80 percent by 2050.
It does little good for Portland to act locally but not to think globally. The proposed propane terminal would move greenhouse gas emissions elsewhere. No, we cannot prevent propane from being burned around the world, but that does not mean we must facilitate it. If you truly believe in the goals of the Climate Action Plan, you must not allow a project so contradictory to it.
Given the risks, the lack of information and the city’s climate goals, we ask council to refuse any approvals, zoning changes, etc. that would allow the Pembina propane terminal to go forward. If you are not willing to reject this project outright now, at a minimum you should postpone action until important safety studies are complete so that everyone can fully assess the risks and benefits.
Thank you for your service and your consideration.
Sincerely,
Dannielle Herman, chair
On behalf of the Overlook Neighborhood Association