HomeMy WebLinkAboutres2019-004Whatcom County
Agenda Bill Master Report
File Number: AB2019-113
COUNTY COURTHOUSE
311 Grand Avenue, Ste #105
Bellingham, WA 98225-4038
(360) 778-5010
File ID:
AB2019-113
Version:
1 Status: Approved
File Created:
01/30/2019
Entered by:
DBrown@co.whatcom.wa.us
Department:
Council Office
File Type:
Resolution
First Assigned to: Council
Agenda Date: 01/29/2019 Next Mtg. Date:
TITLE FOR AGENDA ITEM:
Hearing Date:
Resolution requesting the County Executive provide staff resources and funding to allow Cascadia Law
Group to complete Contract No. 201708008 related to legal ways the County may choose to limit the
negative impacts on public safety, transportation, the economy, and environment from crude oil, coal,
liquefied petroleum gases, and natural gas transshipments from the Cherry Point UGA
SUMMARY STATEMENT OR LEGAL NOTICE LANGUAGE:
Resolution requesting the County Executive provide staff resources and funding to allow Cascadia Law
Group to complete Contract No. 201708008 related to legal ways the County may choose to limit the
negative impacts on public safety, transportation, the economy, and environment from crude oil, coal,
liquefied petroleum gases, and natural gas transshipments from the Cherry Point UGA
HISTORY OF LEGISLATIVE FILE
Date: Acting Body: Action: Sent To:
01/29/2019 Council APPROVED
Attachments: Cherry Point Resolution With Proposed Amendment from Special Committee of the Whole
Final Action: 01/29/2019
Enactment Date: 01/29/2019
Enactment #: RES 2019-004
Whatcom County Page 1 Printed on 21412019
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PROPOSED BY: BROWNE, DONOVAN AND SIDHU
INTRODUCTION DATE: JANUARY 29, 2019
RESOLUTION NO. 2019-004
REQUESTING THE COUNTY EXECUTIVE PROVIDE STAFF RESOURCES AND FUNDING
TO ALLOW CASCADIA LAW GROUP TO COMPLETE CONTRACT NO. 201708008
RELATED TO LEGAL WAYS THE COUNTY MAY CHOOSE TO LIMIT THE NEGATIVE
IMPACTS ON PUBLIC SAFETY, TRANSPORTATION, THE ECONOMY, AND
ENVIRONMENT FROM CRUDE OIL, COAL, LIQUEFIED PETROLEUM GASES, AND
NATURAL GAS TRANSSHIPMENTS FROM THE CHERRY POINT UGA
WHEREAS, RCW 36.70A.020 (Planning goals) requires legislators to balance
multiple goals including (5) Economic development, and (10) Environment; and
WHEREAS, the Council has significant concerns about protecting our environment,
has spoken extensively about the need to limit the ability of the existing facilities being
converted into unrefined fossil fuel transshipment facilities because of the opportunity for
the significant health, safety and transportation impacts that would result if the amount of
unrefined fossil fuels transiting Whatcom County was to increase significantly; and
WHEREAS, the Council recognizes that the existing refineries have made recent
investments in facilities such as renewable fuel production and blending -which it believes
will continue; and
WHEREAS, the Council is committed to preserving the thousands of family wage
jobs of those employed by the refineries and their contractors while the transition from
refined fossil fuels to renewables is underway; and
WHEREAS, the Council has frequently expressed that one of its key concerns about
increased transshipments of unrefined fossil fuels is the resulting increase in vessel traffic
within the waters of Whatcom County that would expose critical species such as herring,
salmon and Southern Resident Orca whales to additional risks. The county wants to reduce
the risk of spills and collisions with marine mammals by preventing the increase in Puget
Sound tanker traffic that would occur if regional demand had to be augmented with refined
fuels brought in from other, likely less efficient and environmentally responsible refineries
from other parts of the world — by ensuring the refineries at Cherry Point can continue to
meet the demands of regional markets,.
WHEREAS, in the 2017 budget the County allocated $150,000 for legal assistance
and contracted to spend $75,000 with Cascadia Law Group to undertake items (1) and (2)
in the Scope of Work as provided in EXHIBIT "A"; and
WHEREAS, the first and second tasks were completed, but the third "developing
proposed Comprehensive Plan amendments and associated code and rule amendments for
Council consideration", was not and the relevant budget allocation has since expired, and
WHEREAS, lacking the resources to undertake its own research, councilmembers
with assistance from third parties, produced a preliminary draft containing proposed
changes to the County Comprehensive Plan and County Code, which could have unintended
consequences; and
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1 WHEREAS, the Council has expressed goals for a more robust permitting, SEPA and
2 EIS processes related to new and expanded fossil fuel facilities in the County Council's and
3 October 9, 2018 and January 15, 2019 proposals; and
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5 WHEREAS, the County Council has summited draft Comprehensive Plan, Title 20,
6 Title 22, and Tile 16 language related to new and expanded fossil fuel facilities at Cherry
7 Point on January 15, 2019 for the Planning Commission to consider; and
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9 WHEREAS, the County Council recognizes the Council's proposal would benefit from
10 additional legal review and recommendations for Comprehensive Plan and Code language,
11 per the Scope of Work with Cascadia Law Group [Exhibit A], particularly with regard to
12 proposed language affecting waivers and exemptions from conditional use permitting that
13 may be too restrictive; and
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15 WHEREAS, the County Council also recognizes the final language should, without
16 delay, allow minor projects associated with fossil fuel facilities, such as office expansion,
17 parking lots, regular maintenance, equipment replacement, accessory buildings, safety
18 upgrades, radio communications facilities, storage buildings, guard buildings, etc. that do
19 not expand capacity for fossil fuel shipments, processing, storage, and emissions at existing
20 fossil fuel facilities, nor result in substantive changes in uses of existing fossil fuel facilities;
21 and
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23 WHEREAS, the County Council respectfully recognizes that the County Executive
24 and a majority of the Council have different perspectives on changes to regulations related
25 to Cherry Point, nonetheless the Council believes it is in the best interests of the community
26 to bring this issue to a conclusion sooner rather than later.
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28 NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that in order for the Council to bring this
29 issue to a speedy conclusion the Council respectfully requests that the County Executive
30 approve up to an additional $40,000 of the $75,000 remaining of the original budget
31 allocation for the Cascadia Law Group to work with the Planning and Development Services
32 department as it assists the Council in its deliberations; and
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34 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that Council requests Planning and Development
35 Services (PDS) work with Cascadia Law Group to provide the County Council with draft
36 Comprehensive Plan and code language that addresses each of the following issues, and
37 where possible identifies and uses established code language from other jurisdictions, to be
38 forwarded to the Planning Commission, that:
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40 a. Prohibits additional new fossil fuel refineries in Cherry Point beyond the existing
41 British Petroleum, Phillips 66 and Petrogras facilities as our community has
42 already taken on 'your fair share" of the public health, safety and environmental
43 risks associated with fossil fuel facilities and does not deserve any additional
44 increase in risk that new facilities would bring; and
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46 b. Prohibits any new crude oil transshipment facilities that have any other purpose
47 other than suppling raw materials to the existing refineries; and
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49 c. Prohibits conversion of any existing refinery into a facility primarily serving as a
50 crude oil transshipment facility; and
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52 d. Allows expansion of existing refining capacity in proportion to certain criteria,
53 such as a to a rolling five year projection of the combined regional population
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growth of Washington State and British Columbia as determined by their
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respective published government forecasts; and
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e.
Considers requiring an initial and updated greenhouse gas analysis each time a
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refinery and/or storage capacity of an existing facility is expanded by more than
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one (1) percent over the baseline ("Baseline") as of the date code changes are
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adopted; and
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f.
Requires identification of "Facility Emissions" which are defined as the
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greenhouse gas emissions associated with local fossil fuel facilities, including but
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not limited to
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I. the transportation within the borders of Whatcom County of refined and
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unrefined fossil fuels to and from a facility located within the Cherry Point
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Heavy industrial area, and
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II. the refining and processing of fossil fuels located within the Cherry Point
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Heavy industrial area; and
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g.
At a minimum require local mitigation of (such as carbon offset programs that are
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deployed within Whatcom County's borders) Facility Emissions, above the
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Baseline; and
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h.
Considers credits for the Net Positive environmental impacts of modifications to
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facilities such as programs such as energy recovery from animal waste and when
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calculating carbon offset obligations. "Net Positive" shall mean the net impact
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after factoring in:
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I. fossil fuel inputs for transportation, as well as reduced landfill use and
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methane emissions in the case of animal or plant waste; and
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II. fossil fuel inputs, environmental degradation, habit loss ect. in the
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case of biofuels such as palm oil or corn grown for bio fuels; and
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i.
Aims to reduce the opportunity for the significant transportation, health and
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safety risks to the community that would likely occur should the existing
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refineries be converted to crude oil transshipment facilities by prohibiting the
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construction of additional fossil fuel storage tanks above the current ratio of
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Storage Capacity to Refining Capacity in existence as the date code changes are
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adopted. For this section "Storage Capacity" is defined as total volume of all
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tanks at a facility and "Refining Capacity" is defined as the average monthly
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volume of refining, in the preceding calendar year; and
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j.
Considers that any expansion in storage or refining capacity greater than one (1)
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percent above Baseline shall require ongoing identification of all responsible
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parties involved in the transportation of crude and refined fossil fuels, the storage
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and refining of such, and proof of insurance great enough to cover any
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"Reasonable Worst Case Scenario" that could occur within the borders of
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Whatcom County. The insurance shall be required for as long as the particular
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refinery is operating and shall be increased annually to reflect any increase in the
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Consumer Price Index; and
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Recognizes that the term "Reasonable Worst Case Scenario" shall mean the
derailment and subsequent explosion, fire and extensive contamination of air,
soil, marine environments, all local public and private infrastructure, including but
limited to roads, buildings, parks and sewer systems. The scenario shall assume
the event occurs in high wind conditions, during an earthquake, in the downtown
core of Bellingham, involves a train of maximum possible operating length train,
travelling three times faster than normal, fully loaded with the most volatile
cargo transported to or from Cherry Point, transported in the least safe tankers in
use anywhere in North America, that the cleanup shall take a minimum of ten
years, require the relocation of all businesses and residents within a minimum of
a five mile radius and include the cost of fully compensating all the individuals
and businesses directly and indirectly affected. Please note this scenario is in
direct proportion to what happened during the Lac-Megantic rail disaster which
involved a train of less than maximum size that occurred in Quebec, Canada on
July 6, 2013 and which five years on the community has yet to recover from.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that Council requests the Planning and Development
department ensure any changes to the county code do NOT cause any of the following:
1. Unnecessarily delay the implementation of future safety upgrades that if not
made could potentially place the workers or environment at any risk.
2. Unnecessarily delay improvements that would have a positive impact on climate
change, such as increased efficiency, reduced pollution or greenhouse gas
emissions; and
3. "Catch 22's" where the County withholds permits until other agencies have issued
theirs, such as the Army Core of Engineers which will traditionally refuse to issue
a permit until the local government has approved the project; and
4. Contradictory language such as providing exemptions from the Conditional Use
Permit "CUP" for minor projects, but which later language then forbids being
issq-e&Wkav§e they are located in Cherry Point or are related to fossil fuels.
AD60TED�this,9tb day Of January 2019.
WHA CO TY COUNCIL
< CO- ro
C U
ATTE- WHA CO WASHINGTON
m
Dana Brown v�s�� � rk,*of the Council Rud Browne, Council Chair
AP ROV D TO FO
ivi Deputy Prose ut r
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EXHIBIT "A"
(SCOPE OF WORK)
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4 The Contractor shall represent Whatcom County and assist in ( 1) examining existing
5 County laws including those related to public health, safety, development, building, zoning,
6 permitting, electrical, nuisance, and fire codes and develop recommendations for legal ways
7 the County may choose to limit the negative impacts on public safety, transportation, the
8 economy, and environment from crude oil, coal, liquefied petroleum gases, and natural gas
9 exports from the Cherry Point UGA above levels in existence as of March 1, 2017; (2)
10 providing clear guidance to current and future county councils on the County' s legal rights,
11 responsibilities and limitations regarding interpretation and application of project evaluation
12 under Section 20. 88. 130 ( Major Projects Permits) of the Whatcom County Code; and (3)
13 based on the above study, developing proposed Comprehensive Plan amendments and
14 associated code and rule amendments for Council consideration as soon as possible.
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