USACE is pulling out of its study of the coal terminal in Portland, Oregon since tribal fishing rights are stopping the process. This is great news, as the Columbia Riverkeeper notes, for the health of the anadromous fish populations as well as human communities in the Lower Columbia River Basin.
But this news puts more pressure on a proposal for a new international coal terminal at the end of the Mississippi River in its Delta where air and water pollution from coal already being exported degrades the lives of those nearby. Unfortunately, Louisiana is one of the states that doesn’t require coal cars or coal piles to be covered. Thus wind blows coal ash off open train cars, conveyer belts and large storage piles in all directions. The levees around the stored piles waiting for transfer onto barges are low and simple earthen structures that are easily breached in big storms….
There are many fewer people to be affected in the Mississippi Delta than in Portland and surrounding communities on the Columbia. So, it’s not likely there can be the coordinated, strong protest that has been ongoing in the Columbia River Basin. Nor are there tribal fishing rights that stand up in court. In the Mississippi River Delta it falls to local shrimpers and oyster fishermen to prove that coal ash in the water affects the health of the fin fish and shellfish populations.
Interesting how what happens in one NWNL watershed affects and relates to another.
NO WATER NO LIFE BLOG 