An oil train passes through Vancouver. The Vancouver City Council on Thursday unanimously passed an emergency six-month moratorium on new or expanded facilities that would accept crude oil. The moratorium won’t affect the oil transfer terminal proposed by Tesoro Corp. and Savage Companies that’s currently under review by the state. (Steven Lane/The Columbian)
MORATORIUM ON CRUDE PETROLEUM FACILITIES THAT WOULD ACCEPT BAKKEN CRUDE OIL
(Staff Report 113‐14)
Brent Boger, Assistant City Attorney, and Jon Wagner, Senior Planner, provided staff comments.
AN ORDINANCE declaring an emergency and adopting a six‐month moratorium on applications for permits for the establishment or expansion of all crude petroleum facilities that will accept Bakken crude oil except those vested or contingently vested as of the effective date of this ordinance, and providing that the moratorium will take effect immediately upon passage.
Summary
On June 3, 2014, the City Council adopted Resolution M‐3821, which encouraged agencies to deny permits for facilities that will result in an increase in the transportation of Bakken crude oil through Clark County.
Under current zoning, applications can be made to establish new or expand existing facilities for handling Bakken crude oil. Currently crude oil facilities are generally treated like industrial uses and permitted in the IH (Heavy Industrial) Zone District. The State is considering approval of the Tesoro‐Savage crude oil facility in the Vancouver Port area. For this project, state law preempts the City’s land use authority; however, other facilities may be proposed in the City that could pose a threat to public safety. Also, train traffic carrying more volatile Bakken crude oil will increase if additional oil facilities are approved in the City.
The purpose of the proposed moratorium is to preserve the status quo while the environmental and land use issues are studied. State law allows the Council to impose a moratorium for an initial period of six months so long as a public hearing is held within 60 days after imposition. This moratorium will have no effect on the pending Tesoro‐Savage application.
City Manager Eric Holmes provided the background on this issue that led to Council calling the special meeting to consider this moratorium. He noted that Council had taken policy action in June opposing projects that would increase the transport of Bakken crude oil through the Vancouver community. The EFSEC review process currently underway regarding the proposed Tesoro‐Savage project at the Port of Vancouver only applies to very large‐scale projects, leaving the environmental review and permitting decisions for potential smaller project within the city limits up to the City. He stated that under current zoning, without the moratorium, proposals for expanded or newly constructed oil‐handling facilities could be permitted outright. He stated that the City has already received some inquiries to this effect in the permitting department.
Mr. Holmes explained that under the Open Public Meetings Act, a special meeting can be called by the Mayor if four or more Councilmembers desire it. He stated that five Councilmembers had expressed an interest in calling this meeting to discuss the potential moratorium, which triggered a 24‐hour notice requirement.
Mr. Boger presented Council with an overview of the proposed moratorium.
Councilmember McEnerny‐Ogle asked why the resolution specifically calls out “Bakken” crude oil, and not just crude oil in general. She recommended removing that qualifier.
Councilmember Burkman agreed with Councilmember McEnerny‐Ogle, stating that if the Council utilizes this moratorium, it is essentially recognizing that there currently is a hole in the City’s zoning that needs to be evaluated. He stated as such it would make more sense to start the moratorium with a wider scope and then potentially narrow that later on as more research is done and better information is available to inform the Council.
Councilmember Hansen agreed as well with the proposal of removing “Bakken” from the ordinance.
Motion by Councilmember Hansen, seconded by Councilmember McEnerny‐Ogle, to approve the moratorium ordinance.
Mayor Leavitt stated that he understood the City had received an application from a Port tenant that he believed was handling ethanol to expand its facilities. Mr. Wagner stated that the applicant has two locations, one in Fruit Valley and one at the Port. He stated he didn’t believe either facility handles ethanol.
Mayor Leavitt asked if the applicant was vested already or if this moratorium would have any effect on that application. Mr. Boger stated that permitting staff had just received the application earlier that day, and as such, permitting and legal staff had not had a chance to thoroughly review the application or determine how this moratorium would potentially effect that application. He stated they would be evaluating that as soon as possible.
Councilmember Turlay stated that a while ago the community had taken issue with trains transporting coal and now it is oil. He stated that the underlying issue is whether CO2 causes global warming and is manmade and stated that the community needs to have an evaluation of that somewhere along the way. He stated he would not support the moratorium because he does not believe the underlying cause is correct. He stated he supports safety improvements, which would come through the EFSEC process.
Councilmember Hansen stated that one does not have to be an environmentalist to not want to get blown up. He noted that this is not just an environmental issue, but one also of safety. He asked Councilmember Turlay if there is a commodity he would say is too dangerous to transport through Vancouver neighborhoods.
Councilmember Turlay stated that he believes oil, if not transported in the proper container, is too dangerous. Councilmember Hansen noted that that currently is not being done with oil.
Councilmember Topper stated she sees this issue as one of a safety question, and noted that the purpose of a moratorium is to pause and look further into the issue before allowing more oil‐handling sites to be constructed, and then return to the issues six months later with more information to make a more final decision on the matter.
Councilmember Burkman noted that the EFSEC review process only applies to large facilities, and so this moratorium would address everything that does not meet the threshold for EFSEC review, all of which would be a 100 percent local issue, and the problem is that the current City code does not offer any protections.
Councilmember Smith stated that he is going to do everything he can to protect this community and he does not trust the federal government to do anything about safety regulations for crude oil transported by rail in time.
Councilmember McEnerny‐Ogle asked what the threshold is for triggering the EFSEC review. Mr. Boger stated that if a proposal includes the handling of 50,000 barrels of oil per day shipped by water or 25,000 barrels per day shipped by rail it would trigger EFSEC. Councilmember McEnerny‐Ogle noted that it would then be possible for several smaller sites to be built in Vancouver, and the moratorium would prevent these from popping up without further review.
City Attorney Bronson Potter noted that the moratorium could potentially also impact larger proposals going through the EFSEC process during the determination of land use consistency.
Councilmember McEnerny‐Ogle noted that this moratorium protects the community from getting a bunch of smaller oil‐handling facilities because currently there is nothing on the books to control that.
Councilmember Burkman noted that this would not be the first time the City had utilized a moratorium to allow for further time to review how to improve the City’s code in order to address an issue facing the community. He noted that the Council had used moratoriums somewhat recently in reviewing City code pertaining to marijuana and biofuel.
Motion by Councilmember Burkman, seconded by Councilmember McEnerny‐Ogle, and carried 6‐1, with Councilmember Turlay voting No, to amend the previous motion and strike the qualifier “Bakken” from the language in the title and in Section 2 of the ordinance.
Motion carried unanimously to approve Moratorium Ordinance M‐4090 with an immediate effective date and provide for subsequent Council review and public hearing to be scheduled on Monday, October 20, 2014, at 7 p.m.
Source, Vancouver City Council minutes