Hundreds gathered Tuesday afternoon, Jan. 5, at the Clark County Event Center at the Fairgrounds in Ridgefield, Washington, to offer testimony on the proposed rail-to-marine oil terminal at the Port of Vancouver that would be the nation’s largest, receiving an average of 360,000 barrels of oil per day.
Opponents on Tuesday hammered on the risks involved with four 120-unit trains full of oil traveling through the Columbia River Gorge and into Vancouver every day.
“Our safety is in your hands. We urge you to tell Gov (Jay). Inslee to deny the project,” said Jared Smith, president of the local Longshore union, ILWU Local 4.
The project has been controversial from the time the proposal became public in 2013. Opponents have seized on what they call risks to life, property and ecosystems that they say cannot be mitigated.