Coal Dust Clouds?
There have been repeated reports of sightings from boats traveling in Rosario Strait, of dense, dark clouds that appear periodically from north of Point Roberts.
These are suspected to be emanating from the coal terminal in British Columbia, which has troubling health-related implications should the much larger GPT facility ever be built here in Whatcom County.
The MAP Team needs to have these reports checked out to confirm if these dust clouds are, in fact, coal dust, and if so, to utilize that qualitative information to inform its EIS evaluation accordingly.
The GPT Applicants claims that dust suppression methods -including partial enclosures, baffles, negative pressure ventilation with bag filters, and water sprays- it plans to use will effectively prevent such dust clouds from escaping its premises, however these claims do need to be independently verified by competent authority to insure the Applicant's claims are accurate.
Only by quantifying the amount of coal dust generated from trains, violent car dumping, operation of stacker-reclaimers, multiple conveyors and conveyor transfer towers, and ship loaders, plus solids recovered from storm water treatment systems, will we know the extent of dust problems likely to impact the public and the environment.