Cascade Pipeline Merits Debated Before Chamber

A proposed pipeline from Puget Sound to the Tri-Cities will bolster sometimes critically short fuel supplies in Eastern Washington, a spokeswoman for the Cross Cascade Pipeline Co. said Friday.

But an opponent said the $105 million project will succeed only by forcing competitors out of the market, setting the stage for monopoly pricing.

Joann Hamick and David Bricklin discussed the pipeline before a small Spokane Area Chamber of Commerce audience. The chamber may vote next month on whether to endorse the project.

Oil products reach Spokane three ways, Hamick said. Most comes from Billings-area refineries via the Yellowstone Pipeline. Some moves north from Salt Lake City over the Chevron Pipeline through Pasco, where it also picks up fuel barged on the Columbia River.

The barged fuel, she said, originates at four refineries in Northwest Washington that ship their product south to Portland via the Olympic Pipeline. Fuel is reloaded on barges and hauled upriver.

Hamick said the Olympic Pipeline south of Puget Sound is at capacity. The Cross Cascade line would alleviate that problem, as well as eliminate 60-70 truck trips each day over Snohomish Pass.

When Interstate 90 is blocked, she added, gasoline supplies can reach critical levels. The Kittitas County sheriff organized an emergency convoy this winter when fuels in central Washington were nearly exhausted, she said.

A terminal at Ellensburg is planned as part of the project.

Hamick noted Fairchild Air Force Base backs the project as a way to improve reliability of its fuel supply.

A pipeline direct to Pasco also eliminates repeated transfers of oil products between pipelines and barges, she said.

“The more transfers you have for fuel, the more likely you’ll have a problem,” Hamick said.

Hamick said Olympic, which will own the Cross Cascade line, has a good record on avoiding spills.

But Bricklin challenged Olympic’s history. Since 1973, he said, the company has released 445,000 gallons of fuel into the environment, some from leaks its high-tech monitoring system didn’t detect.

By comparison, Tidewater Barge Lines has experienced a single significant spill of 200,000 gallons.

Tidewater is the lead member of the Cascade Columbia Alliance, which Bricklin represents.

Besides the possibility that owners of the Cross Cascade pipeline could raise gasoline prices once they have a dominant market share, he warned of another potential cost to Eastern Washington farmers who barge crops down the Columbia.

If the tows have nothing to back-haul, he said, they will have to charge more for the one-way passage.

Bricklin said backers of the Cross Cascade project are pressing to establish market share in Eastern Washington before improvements to the Yellowstone and Chevron pipelines and associated refineries are completed.

Hamick said the Cross Cascade line was designed before problems with the other sources were identified, and fixes were under way.

The line, she said, will not have the capacity - it’s designed to transport 64,000 barrels a day - to replace competing suppliers even if they were pushed out of the market.

, DataTimes