Posted on 03/23/2007 6:43:08 AM PDT by thackney
COQUILLE - Jordan Cove Energy Project, L.P. has made it official: The company intends to build a liquefied natural gas terminal on 170 acres of land on Coos Bay's North Spit.
“The LNG facility application has been submitted to (the Coos County Planning Department),” said Coos County Board Commissioner Nikki Whitty during an administrative work session Wednesday morning.
The paperwork, filed on March 16, consisted of a county conditional use permit application that triggers a countdown to a long-awaited public hearing on the controversial project - and a thumbs-up, or thumbs-down from the Coos County Board of Commissioners.
Less than two weeks ago, the International Port of Coos Bay filed a similar application to the Planning Department for the development of the Oregon Gateway Marine Terminal, a multi-berth slip, access channel, dock and turning basin project for ocean-going ships located adjacent to the LNG terminal.
On Wednesday, to get the ball rolling, the three-member board, unanimously agreed to process the two applications in tandem. The board also approved bypassing one common step in the land use process - a review by the Coos County Planning Commission - by greenlighting a search, and subsequent hiring of a special hearings officer to preside over the matters at a hearing before the Board of Commissioners. In most cases, the nine-member Planning Commission first hears land use matters and passes on recommendations to the board, which then hands down the final local land use decision.
While the county will be deciding land use questions, the ultimate siting decision for the LNG project rests with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
The Board of Commissioners discussed Wednesday its rationale for leap-frogging the Planning Commission. Commissioners John Griffith, Kevin Stufflebean and Whitty all agreed the county's decision on the LNG and marine terminals would be appealed to the State Land Use Board of Appeals - no matter what decisions are rendered - so why bog down the process?
Over the years, Griffith has charged that local land use decisions are hollow because the most contentious issues are kicked up to LUBA anyway. On Wednesday, he banged that drum again, expressing sharp criticism and frustration with Oregon's land use process.
“It really is just sort of a front anyhow because LUBA is going to do just like it always does - it does whatever the hell it wants,” Griffith said.
Whitty suggested the two projects would work their way even further up the appeals chain.
“This one will go clear to the court of appeals,” she said.
At first, Whitty said she was surprised to learn the county would rule on the LNG facility at all.
“I thought that we had been told all along that with the LNG facility we wouldn't have any jurisdiction over (it), but (for) the pipeline we would?” she asked.
Griffith said he always knew the county would make some land use decision regarding the terminal.
“I made it pretty clear to anyone who has ever asked that under Oregon's land use scheme there is a local process but it's moot because anything with any controversy in this county winds up in LUBA anyway,” he said.
For that reason, he said he favored voting to “shorten the process” by skirting the planning commission.
“This just makes it more convenient for applicants and opponents,” Griffith said.
In addition, all three commissioners liked the idea of hiring a hearings officer because the applicants, not the county, would cover the expense.
Whitty was concerned the commissioners would be charged with having a conflict of interest, since the county is negotiating to have some natural gas from Jordan Cove pass through the county's pipeline. Griffith dismissed that notion saying the commissioners themselves don't stand to gain financially from the deal. Coos County Legal Counsel Jacki Haggerty said the hiring of a hearings officer would also distance the commissioners from any conflict of interest accusations.
Stufflebean was in favor of the board hiring a hearings officer for several reasons including: bringing in a higher level of expertise, protecting those who volunteer on the Planning Commission from community backlash, and the likelihood a hearings officer would stick closer to the facts of the land use requirements, fending off the chance of a remand order from LUBA. Griffith and Whitty said the county hired a hearings officer during the county's public debates concerning the construction of its 60-mile-long - voter approved - pipeline from Coos Bay to Roseburg.
The permit process allows county officials to consider whether desired uses for property within its jurisdiction which aren't permitted outright within the zones they're planned for - should be allowed.
The 45-page LNG document was submitted by Bob Braddock, Jordan Cove's project manager, while the 82-page slip and access application was filed by the port's executive director, Jeff Bishop. Both suggest their respective projects fit the land use criteria set forth in Coos County's Land and Development Ordinances for the development of industrial and port facility uses within the Coos Bay Estuary Management Plan's water dependent zones.
A 231-mile-long pipeline, dubbed the Pacific Connector, also is proposed to be constructed from the Jordan Cove LNG terminal to Malin, southeast of Klamath Falls. The plans for the pipeline, which will cross vast tracts of public and private lands in numerous counties, has not been submitted to Coos County planners.
Typically, the filing of a conditional use application triggers a 150-day window of opportunity for the county to hold a public hearing. However, planning officials indicated that attorney Mark D. Whitlow of the Portland-based law firm of Perkins Coie, hired by the port and LNG company, intends to give the county greater flexibility in setting a public hearing date.
Haggerty said she would work with Planning Department officials in coming days to execute orders to issue requests for proposals for hearings officers and to call up the matter directly to the board.
Oregon International Port of Coos Bay
http://www.theworldlink.com/news_art/lngdocs1.pdf
Jordan Cove Energy Project
http://www.theworldlink.com/news_art/lngdocs2.pdf
Fast Facts about LNG
Thursday, March 22, 2007 2:14 PM PDT
€ The proposed LNG terminal will be sited on approximately 170 acres of industrial land on the North Spit.
€ The LNG terminal site was created from two parcels of real estate currently owned or controlled by the Oregon International Port of Coos Bay and Roseburg Forest Products. A 160-acre parcel is a portion of the 1,100 acre land purchase transaction between the Port and Weyerhaeuser Co.
€ The LNG terminal will be capable of unloading LNG ships ranging in capacity from 89,000 cubic meters to 160,000 cubic meters.
€ The LNG will be transported by a cryogenic unloading pipeline to two 160,000-cubic-meter (1 million barrel) cryogenic LNG storage tanks, where it will be stored in a liquefied state. The LNG will be stored, vaporized and distributed via the existing NW Natural/Coos County Pipeline and a new 231-mile-long pipeline to Malin.
€ The LNG terminal site will house facilities for marine cargo importation, regasification, energy generation and trans-shipment into an interstate gas pipeline.
€ The Oregon Gateway Marine Terminal project, undertaken by the port, will provide a multi-berth slip and access channel to the Coos Bay deep-draft navigation channel. The port proposal includes plans to construct two berths in the port slip, plus berthing for tugboats.
€ The LNG terminal will use the eastern berth of the port's slip, plus the northern berth for tugboats.
€ The port's western berth will be used by other commercial shipping traffic engaged in world maritime trade.
€ Jordan Cove will construct the LNG ship facilities, including: unloading arms, piping, impoundments, control buildings, hazard detention and prevention systems on the dock and berthing structures provided by the Port.
€ Jordan Cove will lease the east and north berths from the Port.
€ The slip, dock and moorage structures will be permitted, constructed and owned by the Port.
€ Jordan Cove says the LNG terminal will provide numerous benefits to Coos County, including a new, significant and stable source of revenue via pipeline transportation fees and property taxes; increased employment for longshore workers, harbor pilots, tugboat operators, and marine service and supply provisioners; temporary jobs during construction and permanent jobs afterward; and enhancement of maritime safety through improved navigational aids and water-borne firefighting capabilities.
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