[obol] Coos Birding Site to Disappear (long)

[Tim Rodenkirk]

Myself and the president of the local Coos Bay Audubon
chapter met with the executive director of the Int.
Port of Coos Bay this past Monday.  We met hoping to
get a dialog going on the fate of the old Weyerhaeuser
pond site on the north spit of Coos Bay, and that we
did.  The Port has a couple projects planned, the
Jordan Cove project which is where the LNG site is
proposed and an adjoining site, project April, where
Henderson Marsh will be turned into two ocean berths
for a containerized shipping hub that the executive
director said could employee hundreds of people. They
plan on disposing of the spoils and debris (the above
high tide material, the dredgings will have to be put
elsewhere) by putting them in the east end of the old
Wyerhaeuser pond site. The west end of the site would
be used to pump hot salt water from the LNG plant so
that it could be cooled and then piped out into the
ocean. In order to add a little credence to filling in
the east end of the Weyerhaeuser pond he showed us a
map of the bay and talked about the tsunami hazard
present if the site is left as is- the city of North
Bend and the airport could take a hit from a tsunami
if the first wave blew out through the Weyerhaeuser
pond spit as the wave went out and a second wave could
come right through the blow out (this is a very thin
spot on the spit and the pond and a couple dikes are
all that separates the ocean and the bay).  I'm not
convinced the LNG EIS will address this or that
filling in the pond site is the best way to go, but he
said he thought it would come up anyhow and that
filling in the east end of the old Weyerhaeuser pond
site would be one way to shore up the thin area that
could blow out if there was a tsunami. A pretty good
argument if you want to fill in prime bird habitat. 
Our options are thus, look for a mitigation site
elsewhere in the area, period. The executive director
said he thought we could recreate the habitat and
everyone would be happy.  The only problem is
mitigation for a site with the qualities the
Weyerhaeuser pond site has would be impossible and
they'd probably have to do it on federal land (not
likely). So, the only option translate to, no more
birding site! He also said, if all worked out OK
project-wise for them, they could be filling in the
pond site by 2010.

Meanwhile, Weyerhaeuser still has a single person
patrolling the site and it is signed no trespassing.
The executive director of the Port said they tried to
get access for the public but that Weyerhaeuser denied
them.  They currently have a two year option with
Weyerhaeuser to not go through with the land purchase
if the LNG site fails; however, the executive director
sounded like they'd keep the land if the could even if
it failed.  Weyerhaeuser has been contacted (multiple
individuals) and once again we have been denied access
for this year's Shorebird Festival- bummer!

Cape Arago Audubon will be in contact with the
Department of State Lands (DSL) to see how the
wetlands designation process goes at the site. It may
not even be considered a wetland, or if it is
considered a wetland, it may be considered low value. 
We will work on getting it designated high value if
possible. I have lots of bird data going back 10
years.  However, at best all this would do would
require the Port to find a larger mitigation site
elsewhere. 

What can you do:  Contact the Port and tell them to
put their mitigation fill elsewhere and not use the
west end of the area as a cooling pond. If they are
forces to put the fill in that area, the SE end of the
pond would be the best area of the pond to use. Saving
the old aeration pond for an LNG cooling pond also
would make sense, as it currently is used to pipe
water out into the ocean and could still be used for
the LNG water.  If the Port counters with their
tsunami protection argument, ask them why they
couldn't put fill east of the site to protect the bay
from a tsunami blow out?  What engineering firm have
they talked to about details of an actual plan to
shore up the spit?  Is filling in the old Weyerhaeuser
pond site actually part of a plan that's has
officially been studied and engineered?

If you'd like to contact the executive director, Jeff
Bishop you can e-mail him at:
JBishop at PortofCoosBay.com

We will continue to do whatever we can at our end.

Thanks for all of you who have helped out with letters
and e-mails in the past,
Tim Rodenkirk
Cape Arago Audubon



 
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