Coos Bay Navigability Hearing.

LNG protesters in Coos County.\Photo by Jody McCaffree.

The Coos Bay City Council will hold a public hearing on the channel alteration proposed by the Jordan Cove Energy Project to facilitate the use of Coos Bay by LNG (liquefied natural gas) tankers.  The hearing takes place on Tuesday, Aug. 27, 6 p.m. in the City Council Chambers at Coos Bay City Hall (500 Central Ave.).  Public testimony will be accepted.  The case is officially known as Coos Bay file No. 187-18-000153-PLNG-01 (Channel Navigation Alteration in Coos Bay).

The council will consider the recommendation of the Coos Bay Planning Commission.  A compilation of the comments that have already been received during the course of the planning commission’s consideration, along with the planning commission’s recommendation and a planning commission staff report when it is made public, will be available at: http://coosbay.org/departments/community-development-department .

Oregon Shores has strongly opposed this application.  Jordan Cove, we contend, greatly understates the potential impact to the bay’s ecology, and also to its hydrology, that will come with widening the ship channel that traverses the bay.  We argue that the corporation hasn’t made the case that dredging and probably blasting rock to widen the channel is really necessary for their operation.  And, of course, we argue that developing an LNG export terminal on Coos Bay’s North Spit is unacceptable in itself, for many reasons ranging from impact to one of Oregon’s most productive estuaries, to interference with the valuable fishing and oystering industries, to public safety. 

This is one of three land use processes underway regarding the channel widening (“navigability improvement”) plan—the cities of Coos Bay and North Bend, and Coos County, are all considering applications, since the area that would be impacted by the navigability “improvements” crosses all of their jurisdictions.