Last week we shared with you some images of trucks and trailers that will pass through Missoula County en route from Lewiston, Idaho, to oil fields in northern Alberta as part of the Kearl Oil Sands Project. 

Due to begin in 2010, the mining equipment will be shipped from South Korea to the Port of Portland and up the Columbia and Snake rivers to Lewiston. There it will be loaded on the special truck trailers, the largest of which has 12 rows of axles and eight tires to the axle and could be as large as 24 feet wide, 30 feet tall, and 262 feet long; the size of a three story building with the length of almost a football field. 

They will then make their way on Highway 12 up the Lochsa River into Montana. The module route through Missoula County will take parts of three days to traverse. Day 1 will be a 32.5-mile leg from Lolo Pass to Lolo. On Day 2, the loads move 22.8 miles down Highway 93, up Reserve Street to Interstate 90, and on to a former weigh station site north of Bonner. Day 3’s route is 105 miles along Highway 200 through Lincoln to Bowman’s Corner and Highway 89.

 

The Montana Department of Transportation has finally release their Environmental Assessment of the project, and according to groups in Montana, it "does not adequately address the impacts these shipment will have on local communities, emergency vehicle passage, or environmental damage from road construction."  In addition they say it "does not even mention the impacts Tar Sands mining has on Climate Change even though Montana stand to be greatly affected by the continued use of such fuels."  And finally, "the scope of the Assessment is drastically limited and does not take into account the entire route through which these shipments will pass. By only completing the Montana Environmental Assessment Exxon Mobil is circumventing any federal process that would require them to look at the shipment route as a whole."

This is where you come in.  We need to press the Montana DOT to submit to a federal Environmental Impact Statement to take into full account all the damages that Tar Sands mining generates.  If you're compelled to take action to request that this process is thoroughly vetted, please CLICK HERE to send comments about the Environmental Asessment.

In addition, for those in Montana there are a few upcoming opportunities to hear about this project, to engage those involved, and to speak your mind.

Public hearings on the Environmental Assessment will be:

Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Open House: 6:00 p.m., Presentation and Public Hearing: 6:30 p.m.
Cut Bank Civic Center, 800 E. Railroad, Cut Bank, MT

Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Open House: 6:00 p.m., Presentation and Public Hearing: 6:30 p.m.
Lincoln School Gymnasium, 808 Main Street, Lincoln, MT

Thursday, April 29, 2010
Open House: 6:00 p.m., Presentation and Public Hearing: 6:30 p.m.
Meadow Hill Middle School, Old Gymnasium, 4210 Reserve Street, Missoula, MT

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