Ambre Energy’s coal export project recently submitted its “Environmental Review” to the permitting agencies that will soon determine if, and how, the Morrow Pacific Project proceeds toward its goal of shipping as much as 8.8 million tons of the controversial fossil fuel to Asia.

But Ambre representatives say some tinkering now needs to be done to the nearly 1,200-page review to incorporate changes the company attests will “improve the efficiency and environmental design of the project.” Once completed, an updated review should be sent to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Oregon Department of State Lands by next month.

Because a new version will be completed by mid-August, representatives of Gard Communications, the public relations firm hired to promote the estimated $242 million project, said they would not yet release the draft Environmental Review completed by Le Grande, Ore., engineering firm Anderson Perry & Associates. Once the new version is finished, the agency plans to make public a digital copy.

For the past few months, The Spotlight has been in regular contact with Gard Communications to ask if the Environmental Review had been submitted and request the paper be informed when it was. On July 20, Gard Communications revealed to the paper the initial Environmental Review was sent off nearly three weeks prior, despite telling The Spotlight on numerous occasions since then that it was not finished.

“We didn’t mean to be evasive,” said Gard Communications’ Liz Fuller. She said because the review contained portions that needed redaction before release, including cultural resources information that is closely guarded by tribal nations, her company preferred to let the permitting agencies “take the lead” on making the report public.

In general, once materials are submitted to public agencies, those documents can be disseminated. The Department of State Lands has a physical copy of the drafted Environmental Review in its Salem office and will also upload a digital copy of the most recent report to its website once received.

Ambre Energy also funded an April 2012 “Biological Assessment” by Anderson Perry & Associates. (See June 5 Spotlight edition, “REPORT: Coal project would cause unavoidable impacts to fish and habitat”).

That assessment presumed the impacts on the surrounding environment of constructing a rail-to-barge coal transfer facility near Boardman, Ore. The report also estimates an increase of 94 percent in water traffic along the Columbia River, shipping levels that have been seen before on the water system in the mid-1990s.

The updates to the Australian energy company's plans that will be included in the most recent Environmental Review will also trigger another 30-day public comment period, said Department of State Lands Resource Coordinator Charles Redon. An active link for comments should soon be available at: www.statelandsonline.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Comments.AppListLF&county=Morrow. That page will also contain any up-to-date information on the project as it is received by the state.

The Army Corps said nearly 20,000 people shared written input during a 60-day comment period that began in March.

A 7-page “reader’s guide” to the Environmental Review was prepared by Anderson Perry. Click here to view the Morrow Pacific Project 'reader's guide.'

The Army Corps will analyze the Ambre Energy-funded Environmental Review to determine its merits. After which, the federal agency may decide to release its own Environmental Assessment, or if it's found the project could have a significant impact on the environment, require the development of a more-detailed Environmental Impact Statement.

Gov. John Kitzhaber and others, including the Environmental Protection Agency and, just last week, U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley, have adamantly stated the Army Corps should require an even-deeper Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement. That study would analyze not only the environmental ramifications of the Ambre project, but the cumulative impacts of the plan as it relates to a handful of other similar coal export proposals in the Pacific Northwest.

While not explicitly denying those requests to examine the potential environmental harm of six regional coal export projects as a whole, the Army Corps states on its website, “Each proposal is based on the applicants’ needs in those locations and each is unique. Portland and Seattle [Army Corps] districts are coordinating their reviews but are evaluating each project individually.”