The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers illegally withheld public information about Ambre Energy’s Morrow Pacific coal export proposal, according to a federal court decision in a Freedom of Information Act case brought by Columbia Riverkeeper. This legal victory will help the public understand why the Army Corps has chosen to perform a cursory and narrow-sighted review of the Morrow Pacific projects’ human health and environmental impacts. See press release.
The Morrow Pacific coal export project would ship coal via train from Montana and Wyoming to Boardman, Oregon, where the coal would be loaded on to barges and shipped to Port Westward near Clatskanie, Oregon. From there, Ambre would transfer coal to ocean-going ships bound for Asian coal-fired power plants.
Ambre Energy’s Morrow Pacific coal export project has stirred public controversy and prompted widespread calls for a thorough review of the environmental and human-health impacts. Governor Kitzhaber, the Washington State Department of Ecology, the National Marine Fisheries Service, dozens of elected officials, and over 15,000 citizens asked the Army Corps to prepare a thorough Environmental Impact Statement. The Army Corps has already committed to prepare full Environmental Impact Statement for similar coal export terminals in Washington State.
Unfortunately, in September of 2012, the Army Corps announced that it would use a truncated and narrow-sighted environmental review process for the Morrow Pacific project, which will severely limit future public and agency participation. Shortly after that announcement, Columbia Riverkeeper sent the Army Corps a Freedom of Information Act request for information about that controversial decision.
After the Army Corps stalled for ten months and refused to release key public documents about the decision, Columbia Riverkeeper, in August of 2013, asked a federal court to order the Army Corps to comply with the Freedom of Information Act and produce the information.
On August 14, 2014, the Oregon Federal District Court rejected nearly every legal argument that the Army Corps asserted to justify keeping the documents secret, and ordered the Army Corps to turn over the information. The Court’s order will force the Army Corps to explain its actions, and hopefully encourage the Army Corps to reconsider its decision to prepare a narrow and cursory environmental analysis for the Morrow Pacific project.
Riverkeeper looks forward to receiving these important public documents from the Army Corps, which should help to explain why and how the Army Corps decided to give short shrift to the serious human health and environmental concerns surrounding coal export on the Columbia.
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