The Port Commissioners should reconsider the direction the Port is taking to allow the loading of Sulfur at Pier 2. 

The public process to date has been used to steer the debate and it has been said that there is little opposition to sulfur loading from the neighbors.  This is not fact.  The initial public meeting called hastily and with short notice, downplayed the environmental consequences of sulfur being trucked through our city center and loaded onto large cargo ships.  A small demonstration loading downplayed the fact that substantial dust and smell did occur.  We were told that the Port is within their rights and this is in fact their function.  I ask that you read this letter and then reconsider the Port direction.

As far as I know this is the third time the Port has loaded or considered loading sulfur in Anacortes.  Previously there was a load operation and it was an admitted disaster because of odor and dust, blamed mainly on the open trucks used at the time.  The second time it was suggested that sulfur be stored and loaded here which was a bad idea that never got far off the ground.  Now the Port is again considering sulfur shipping using the same system currently used for coke.  Although the coke loading is vastly better than during the 1990’s it does not contain the dust completely as evidenced by the black mess that still results on Cap Sante homes.  This system is also unlikely to work for sulfur because not only do you have the dust problem but odor as well.  My opinion of the test load was that it did in fact have odor and dust, the two things that the public meeting said we would not have.  If a small test load of a few hours duration had dust and odor issues what do you think is going to happen when 20-50k tons are loaded over a week’s period of time?

The issue is not whether it is legal for the Port to allow the loading of a product; the issue is if it is the right thing for this community.  I understand that the Port has a pier they spent significant money on to upgrade for shipping and are now desperate to use it.  The problem is the Port of Anacortes can not compete with the big ports that do the majority of the shipping business.  So what do we get in result?  Anacortes gets products no one else wants to ship, mainly noisy or dirty products with the majority being waste products including the coke and sulfur.  Let’s remember that it is a fact that the reason the refinery wants to now ship sulfur out of Anacortes is because they can no longer ship it out of Canada.  The sulfur from the US does not meet Canadian environmental standards.  We should also remember that there are other alternatives for the refinery to get rid of these waste products, this one just happens to appear to be the cheapest for them.

The Port of Anacortes, as well as Anacortes as a whole,  needs to decide if we want these products being trucked through our city center and assume the resulting pollution risks that inevitably come to bear.  Fortunately Anacortes is not the town it was 50 years ago, it is time the Port have a vision that is not mired in that past.  The Port’s vision should not be to trade off handling the regions waste products for the few jobs that result.  It needs to determine other uses for Pier 2 that are better suited for a small port area that is immediately adjacent to residential neighborhoods.  I was struck recently during a political debate when I heard one of the Port Commissioners say that he did not want to see cruise ships come into Anacortes and pour out their passengers into our small downtown.  But that same commissioner seems to be willing to bring in waste products and jeopardize the quality of life here.  Where is the sense in that?

Anacortes history is full of very bad decisions that pitted jobs against quality of life and allowed the exploitation of resources and significant pollution.  We are still cleaning up that pollution, interesting enough some of which is currently being handled at Pier 2.  It is time for a new vision instead of continuing down the road we have traveled all these years.  The Port needs to get on board with the rest of the city which has made vast improvements over the last twenty years.  The Port Commission should reject this idea before it goes even further and make serious attempts to establish a new direction to bring cleaner jobs to Anacortes.

J.B. Smith