BHP Advancing Potash Port Options
The City of Hoquiam, Wash., has scheduled a public hearing on Oct. 24 regarding BHP Group’s proposed potash terminal at the Port of Grays Harbor (GM Nov. 21, 2018). BHP would like to use the redeveloped industrial port to export potash for its proposed Jansen mine in Saskatchewan.
BHP, Melbourne, re-submitted a shorelines permit application on Aug. 6. BHP withdrew a shorelines permit application it submitted late last year after local tribes, numerous agencies, and environmental groups expressed concerns.
The company is considering Vancouver, B.C., as an alternate site for the potash terminal.
The City of Hoquiam has determined that the project will not require an environmental impact statement (EIS). However, BHP is required to implement 26 mitigation measures pertaining to air, water, wildlife, natural resources, environmental health, historic and cultural preservation, and transportation “to avoid, minimize, or compensate for the severity of the environmental impacts resulting from the proposal.”
For more than a year, BHP has been filing environmental impact review papers and modifying its plans after getting input from Hoquiam officials and agencies. It also studied the visual impacts on five properties surrounding the proposed project site. It has requested substantial shoreline development, shoreline conditional use and zoning conditional use permits, and a shoreline variance from Hoquiam.
If the Port of Grays Harbor is selected, there initially would be 4 million mt/y of potash arriving at the terminal, with 4-5 trains and 1-2 vessels making deliveries on a weekly basis. A company spokesman said that would double over time. However, that would not start until four years after Jansen’s completion is approved by BHP’s Board of Directors. While that decision is still to come, work at the Jansen site continues, as the company is 84 percent complete with a $2.7 billion shaft development program (GM July 19, p. 27).
At peak operation, the Hoquiam terminal near Bowerman Airport and the Grays Harbor National Wildlife Refuge would receive up to 10 trains a week, each potentially hauling 20,000 mt of potash, which would either be stored or loaded on up to four ships per week or 220 bulk ocean-going vessels annually for fertilizer export.
To minimize the impact of increased train volume at the port, construction would include an 8,500-foot rail loop that would connect with existing rail facilities, allowing entire trains to be confined within the project’s boundaries; a covered rail car unloading zone; a potash storage structure; upland conveyors; and a marine terminal that would include a conveyor ship loader.
An electrical substation and water, electricity, sewer, and storm water utilities would be included in the Hoquiam project’s infrastructure. There also would be administrative and maintenance buildings, each about 38,000 square feet in size, a parking lot, and a fueling station with double-walled tanks above ground. At full operation, BHP anticipates the terminal would provide up to 50 full-time jobs.
Enclosed train cars loaded with potash would be taken to a covered transfer station. The potash would either be taken directly to awaiting vessels or stored. A BHP study indicated that any attributable emission increases “are sufficiently low enough to protect human health and safety from potential carcinogenic and/or other toxic effects.”
BHP proposes to remove existing over-water structures and pilings near a port terminal, plus more than 1,300 creosote-soaked pilings from the Chehalis River. In-water construction would include a new marine terminal and berth next to another terminal’s existing dock, and grated over-water coverage.
BHP also proposes to install a wetland and aquatic site at the mouth of the Hoquiam River, including the restoration of a 43-acre site where tide lands were previously filled.
Documents are available for review online at www.cityofhoquiam.com, including a 64-page executive summary posted in July that highlights information included in BHP’s permit application. Written comments will be accepted through Oct. 14.