Not everyone is on board for LNG

To The Eagle:

I wish to disagree respectfully with Richard Erickson’s assertion that all of us who have to work for a living and are raising children here hope for the LNG plant to be built. Somehow left out of the discussion are the jobs which will be negatively impacted by an LNG plant at Bradwood. I happen to have one. I have earned a living as a kayak guide out of Skamokawa since 1998. I’m currently part owner of Columbia River Kayaking, along with six other local guides. My job may be modest compared to a potential security position with NorthernStar, but it has helped me support a family for a dozen years and brings in clients from around the country who spend thousands of dollars every year at local B&B’s, restaurants and other businesses. I like to think that it has been a business that has been good for the community.

I’m used to sharing the river with other users, and indeed that is part of what makes it interesting. I use the Columbia Ship Report to keep track of the large ships from around the world and the cargoes they carry. With my kayak groups I try to be respectful of gillnetters, duck hunters, sport fishermen and other traditional users of the river. My clients come away, I hope, with a greater appreciation not just of the river itself but of all the people in this community who share it and make their livings from it. Those who have come for our six-day programs have told me that they expected just to go paddling and instead discovered a real community.

NorthernStar is a different beast entirely. Because of the large exclusion zones around the ships necessary for security, other boats will be forced off sections of the river whenever an LNG tanker is using the channel. The exclusion zone extends to the shore in places where the shipping channel is close to the shoreline, such as along the stretch from Skamokawa to Three Tree Point. What will this mean for my tours, for gillnetters, for anyone in a boat? I have asked NorthernStar representatives at public meetings and they did not supply an answer. Under the current proposal Elochoman Slough would need to serve as a hub for security vessels. How will that affect current users? What will NorthernStar's agreement to pay for security be worth if they sell? How will a large, noisy, brightly-lit industrial development at Bradwood that would be visible and audible for much of our most popular kayak route affect my business? The rural nature of our county is something that I and my clients value.

There are, of course, other larger issues related to LNG regarding safety, the dredging of toxins buried in Clifton Channel, condemnation of property for a pipeline, and whether LNG even makes sense for our future energy security. Others can address those issues better than I, and have done so. I merely want to point out that in the process of creating some jobs, it will hurt others. Wahkiakum County does need jobs, but we need to ask ourselves whether, in the process of accepting any new way of making a living, we are turning it into a place others no longer wish to visit, or in which we no longer wish to live.

Andrew Emlen

Skamokawa