Pipeline Would Cross Cascades Proposal Touted As Way To Ensure Gasoline Supplies

Operators of a West Side pipe line are proposing a 220-mile extension that would bring gasoline and other products from Puget Sound refineries directly into Central and Eastern Washington.

Olympic Pipe Line Co. pitches the $105 million project as a way to ensure a stable supply of affordable gasoline while reducing potential damage from truck or barge spills.

But environmentalists and operators of competing petroleum transportation systems question the need for the proposed line, and challenge claims it would be cleaner.

One warns that farmers could end up paying more to barge grain down the Columbia River.

Olympic operates a 400-mile pipeline that connects refineries at Anacortes and Cherry Point with Seattle and Portland.

William Mulkey, Olympic’s vice president for regulatory and environmental affairs, said some of the 265,000 barrels of oil shipped down the line each day are transferred to barges at Portland for delivery to Pasco.

From there, it can be pumped to Spokane over the Chevron Pipeline.

But demand along the Interstate-5 corridor now exceeds the capacity of the 30-year-old pipeline, Mulkey said.

In Eastern Washington, he said, the Yellowstone Pipe Line from Montana also reaches capacity at times. And that source could become less reliable in the future as oilfields in the Rocky Mountain interior play out, he said.

To alleviate the capacity problems, Mulkey said, Olympic wants to build a pipeline from Woodinville to Pasco. The line would cross the Cascade Mountains at Snoqualmie Pass and cross the Columbia River by way of an existing bridge or beneath the riverbed. A new terminal would be added in Ellensburg.

“We would not have to clear much right of way,” Mulkey said, noting that some pipe could be laid beneath Bonneville Power Administration transmission lines.

He said Olympic will seek a permit for the pipeline in January. The permitting process should take about 18 months, he said.

Competitors are suspicious of Olympic’s motives.

Martin Pepper, manager of Tidewater Barge Line’s Liquids Division, said the pipeline adds an unnecessary transportation corridor.

Tidewater handles all the oil shipped between Portland and Pasco. Martin said the company’s spill record is superior to Olympic’s.

Tidewater, he noted, is adding double-hulled barges to decrease the chance of spills.

Pepper said loss of oil traffic could increase rates to other shippers, primarily farmers, because fixed costs would be spread across a smaller customer base.

Tidewater, landowners, labor unions and other groups are organizing a Cascade-Columbia Alliance to fight the plan, he said.

Much of Spokane’s petroleum products are delivered over the Yellowstone Pipe Line.

Although the company has been forced to truck gasoline and other products around the Flathead Indian Reservation since April, supplies have not diminished, according to John Bennitt, a spokesman for Conoco Oil.

Conoco and the operators of two other Billings-area refineries have invested millions in technology that will enable them to handle crude oil from Canada, which will be shipped across Montana over a new pipeline, he said.

The modifications will allow them to keep supplying Spokane far into the future, Bennitt said.

At Friends of the Earth, Northwest Director David Ortman said his concern was less with the Olympic pipeline corridor’s impacts than with the absence of regional deliberation about the need for more oil-related infrastructure.

“How do we as a region make these decisions,” he asked.

Ortman said he also has concerns about the potential for increased tanker traffic in Puget Sound.

, DataTimes