The City of Tacoma and US Army Corps of Engineers are it again - planning another assault on the Puyallup Estuary without proper environmental review and public involvement. As a united community continues to fight PSE’s fracked gas LNG project, the City and the Corps are making plans to dredge, widen, and greatly expand the Blair Waterway to allow larger vessels, including super freighter tankers into the Port of Tacoma.

The Corps own language states “no significant impacts anticipated”, followed by a list of impacts that are absolutely significant:

The Corps “...will coordinate with EPA during the course of the study and analyze the level of effect due to construction activities, which is anticipated at this time as being of no significant impact.”

And this:

"The Corps’ preliminary analyses of the principal effects to resources in the study area during project scoping identified some potential impacts to resources:
• Potential underwater noise disturbance to fish, marine mammals, and diving birds from dredging and vessel movement
• Disturbance to and mortality of bottom-dwelling fish and invertebrates
• Risks associated with disturbing sediments in an area known to have previously contained contaminants, and turbidity generated during dredging
• Uncertainty in changes to the movement of vessels in Tacoma Harbor and associated operational greenhouse gas emissions
• This project occurs within tribal treaty-reserved fishing and shellfish harvesting areas, and tribes will be coordinated with in order to address avoidance and minimization of project impacts to fish, shellfish, and harvest activities."

Based on the Corps own words, It looks as though the agencies are once again avoiding consultation with the Puyallup Tribe until AFTER the project is launched.

The Environmental Assessment that the Corps has proposed will have a far lower level of environmental study and significantly less public involvement. Yet the potential impacts the Corps lists above, make it clear that the proposed dredging of protected waters at the Blair Waterway should have a full Environmental Impact Statement with the highest level of environmental review and public involvement.

Please take 2 minutes to sign this letter to the US Army Corps of Engineers TODAY and tell them we are watching and we demand a full Environmental Impact Statement and immediate consultation with Tribes. Share with your friends and family on Facebook, email, carrier pigeon, whatever it takes. The comment period deadline is February 21. Today is a good day to flood the Corps with letters.

We will not allow the Puyallup Estuary to become a major fossil fuel export sacrifice zone.

Together we stand strong for the Salish Sea and honoring Treaty Rights.

YEHOW!

More information at the Corps project website here: https://bit.ly/2DORAFA