Oregon coal port gets initial permits
Trains would unload onto barges at Boardman
An Australian energy company has cleared a key hurdle for a terminal on the Oregon side of the Columbia River that would ship coal from the American West to Asia.
The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality on Friday issued draft permits regulating coal dust at the Coyote Island Terminal LLC at the Port of Morrow in Boardman.
The department will hold public hearings on the air and water pollution permits July 9 in Portland and Hermiston. There is no specific date for final permits. Two of the permits are designed to control the release of coal dust into the air and water while it is being handled. A third permit covers potential erosion during construction.
Ambre Energy plans to build a totally enclosed facility to unload coal trains from Montana and Wyoming and load the cargo onto barges for transport downriver to the Port of St. Helens, where it would be loaded in huge ships to carry it to Asia.
“State and federal agencies are driving a rigorous and thorough environmental review of the project,” Clark Moseley, president of the Morrow Pacific project, said in a statement. “While this step is not a green light to begin operations, the DEQ permits, once issued, will be the signal for us to start construction, putting hundreds of Oregonians back to work.”
The project is still awaiting a permit for dock construction from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The company, which owns a 50 percent interest in two coal mines in Montana, has contracts to sell 4 million metric tons a year of coal for 10 years to two South Korean utilities. But it hopes to eventually double that. The company is also in discussions with the state of Montana over a $10 million loan to take control of a Montana coal mine to boost exports to Asia.
Ambre’s attempt to take over the Decker coal mine near the Wyoming border was delayed in early May for unspecified reasons. Ambre co-owns the mine with Cloud Peak Energy but is seeking full control in a deal worth up to $64 million.
Ambre Energy also holds a controlling interest in Millennium Bulk Terminals, which is working to transform the site of an old aluminum smelter in Longview, Wash., into a coal shipping facility. Another proposal is pending for Cherry Point, Wash.
Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber has expressed reservations about the local environmental impacts of coal shipments and the effects on global air quality and greenhouse gas production from burning more coal.
A different view predominates in Montana. Coal mining provides substantial revenues for state government and offers lucrative jobs in rural areas otherwise dependent on agriculture.
Herb Kulow with the Montana Board of Investments said that for the state Board of Investments, a loan to Ambre is about keeping the Decker mine operational and bringing back some of the jobs it’s lost.
The Decker mine was once among the largest in the U.S., producing more than 10 million tons of coal a year. It was on track through April to extract just 1.5 million tons this year, after laying off more than one-third of its workers in recent months, according to U.S. Department of Labor data.
Ambre has said it could ramp up mining once it completes the deal with Cloud Peak. Ambre also co-owns a Wyoming mine, and last year announced a deal to supply up to 5.5 million tons of coal annually to utilities in South Korea.