On May 9, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers denied the application of Pacific International Terminals, a subset of Gateway Pacific Terminals, to build North America’s largest coal terminal at Cherry Point, just 15 miles north of Bellingham, Washington.
Cherry Point, or Xwe’chieXen, is a sacred site and the historic fishing grounds of the Lummi Nation. The terminal permit was denied on grounds that a coal terminal would disrupt the usual and accustomed fishing rituals of the Lummi, which would violate the precedent set by Boldt in 1974.
The terminal controversy has been ongoing since 1992, when GPT first applied to build a terminal at Cherry Point. Under PIT, the application proposed a pier to ship coal, potash, fertilizer and possibly ship petroleum products from Cherry Point. In 1997, Lummi Nation raised concerns about the coal terminal, citing fishing disruptions, degradation of water quality and infringement on the tribe’s senior water right at Cherry Point.
Cherry Point was declared an aquatic reserve and protected from conflicting uses in 2000 after numerous environmental studies and fish population studies. Wastewater pipelines, refineries, an Alcoa plant and the proposed terminal remained at Cherry Point, despite its status as an aquatic reserve.
In 2011, RE-Sources for Sustainable Communities, a water-keeper organization based in Bellingham, Washington, filed a lawsuit against PIT for filling wetlands on its property without a permit.
The next year, hundreds of Lummi tribal members gathered to announce the tribe’s opposition to the terminal. Lummi leaders ceremoniously burned a check on the beach to symbolize that no amount of money could buy their support for the terminal.
In late 2012 a 120-day scoping period began for the environmental impact statemfor Cherry Point. Large portions of the community turn out in opposition to the coal terminal and over 125,000 comments were left during the public commentary period.
The Lummi Nation began their totem pole journey around the country to demonstrate their opposition to the terminal in 2013, and continued making similar journeys in 2014 and 2015. In October of 2013, PIT paid RE-Sources $1.6 million in a settlement over filling wetlands, and months later, a contract was signed to begin the EIS for Cherry Point.
As the price of coal dropped throughout 2015, several potential customers for GPT terminal declared bankruptcy, including Arch Coal, which had the largest stake in Powder River Basin coal, the main proposed export from the terminal.
Other coal companies saw significant drops in revenue because of a lack of demand and low coal prices. Cloud Peak Energy, which had a 49 percent stake in GPT, reported a crippling loss of $250 million in 2015. Peabody Energy, which once projected it would export 24 million tons of coal through GPT per year, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in March of 2016.
Shares of Peabody have fallen 97 percent in the last year, and on April 1, 2016 SSA Marine announced a suspension of the terminal’s EIS until the Army Corps decided if the project interferes with tribal fishing rights.
From there, the Army Corps rejected the permit for the terminal, concluding that it would interfere with tribal fishing rights. This ruling effectively blocks North America’s largest coal terminal from being built and upholds the Lummi Nation’s treaty protected right to fish.
The Lummi Nation called the ruling a victory for their people and for treaty rights in a statement released shortly after the ruling.