NOTE: “Today” and “tonight” refer to Friday, July 11.
PORT ANGELES — Olympic Climate Action will sponsor “Oil and Our Marine Waters” tonight.
The gathering — focusing on transport of oil in area marine waters – will be in City Council chambers at City Hall, 321 E. Fifth St., beginning at 7 p.m.
Mike Doherty, one of the three Clallam County commissioners, will speak about proposed increases in oil tanker traffic and possible risks to North Olympic Peninsula communities and resources.
The film “The Big Fix,” a 2012 documentary about the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill, will be screened.
This event is part of a continent-wide week of protest of oil transport commemorating the one-year anniversary of the Lac-Mégantic oil-train disaster that killed 47 people in Quebec, according to organizers.
Proposed shipments
Oil companies are proposing shipments of oil-shale and tar-sands fuel from Alberta and the American Rockies for export through West coast ports.
“If all the proposed new oil port facilities in the Salish Sea region are constructed, the increase in tankers passing the Olympic Peninsula would inevitably increase the risk of spills due to rough seas, equipment failure and human error,” Olympic Climate Action said in a statement.
“Much of the increased tanker traffic will bunker (i.e., take on fuel) in Port Angeles Harbor, risking spills that could be particularly devastating to the heart of the Peninsula’s largest community — a community that is about to spend millions of dollars to clean up this harbor from past damage and is spending even more restoring salmon habitat.”
