Multnomah County Calls on Governor Kotek and the Department of Environmental Quality to Deny Zenith Energy Air Permit
County government joins 37 labor, environmental, and community organizations in calling for strong action from state regulators.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 7, 2023
Media Contact: Nick Caleb, Breach Collective, nick@breachcollective.org, (541) 891-6761
Portland, Oregon – On December 7, 2023, Multnomah County sent a letter to Governor Kotek and Leah Feldon, Director of the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (“DEQ”), highlighting the dangers of the Zenith Energy oil-by-rail terminal, and calling for a denial of the company’s air permit renewal application. Zenith Energy is a Texas-based fossil fuel company that operates an oil-by-rail terminal in the Critical Energy Infrastructure (CEI) Hub, a six mile stretch of seismically unstable ground in Portland along the Willamette River. Studies show that a sizable earthquake would lead to an enormous catastrophe, including a massive toxic gas release that could kill thousands of Portlanders and the largest U.S. oil spill since BP Deepwater Horizon.
The letter reads, in part:
“We are writing to voice opposition to the approval of Zenith Energy Terminal Holdings LLC’s (“Zenith”) current Air Contaminant Discharge Permit application. The Department of Environmental Quality has the responsibility and authority to protect public health and the environment. As a jurisdiction with shared values, we urge you to use your existing authority to reject this permit. We agree with advocates that the Oregon Administrative Procedure, 340-018-0050(2)(a)(C), and the circumstances surrounding this facility warrant a rejection of the permit.
“You and the agency have the authority to reject this permit and we ask you to do so. Business as usual is unacceptable, given the immediate risks of this facility, and the risks of climate change…We encourage you to act with the boldness that the moment deserves.”
In 2021, the City of Portland denied Zenith’s LUCS application, explaining that “[w]e know that the activities carried out at this site, and the fossil fuel products being transported, have the potential to directly impact tribal territories, cultural resources, and tribal treaty rights.” The City, Columbia Riverkeeper, and Willamette Riverkeeper, successfully defended the decision at the Land Use Board of Appeals and Oregon Court of Appeals. However, on October 3, 2022, just days before the Oregon Supreme Court issued another favorable decision, the City reversed course and announced that they were granting Zenith a LUCS and permission to move oil trains through Portland for at least five more years.
Commissioner Lori Stegmann, Multnomah County District 4, said:
“We have all seen the detrimental consequences of hazardous weather events in our county, nationally, and globally. We must reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and make policy decisions that address the disproportionate exposure and harm of climate change. For the well-being and health of our community, I urge the DEQ to reject the Zenith air quality permit.”
Damon Motz-Storey, Director of the Sierra Club’s Oregon chapter said,
“It's time for the Department of Environmental Quality to protect clean air in Portland by rejecting this crude oil terminal’s permit to pollute. Portlanders overwhelmingly want a transition off dangerous fossil fuels. We need our regulators to take action to protect public health.”
On August 23, 2023, Street Roots and Desmog published investigative accounts of a behind closed doors negotiation that took place between City of Portland officials and Zenith Energy employees and lobbyists in the Summer and Fall of 2022. Through public records requests, journalists discovered that the City of Portland worked in secret to facilitate new permissions for Zenith, made clear efforts to hide their activities, and frustrated attempts at transparency from advocates and journalists.
Also in August 2023, Breach Collective, Willamette Riverkeeper, Portland Audubon, Portland Harbor Community Coalition, and Columbia Riverkeeper sent a letter to DEQ detailing the findings of the public records requests and the legal insufficiencies of the City’s process, writing:
“In reaching its formal decision to approve the LUCS, the City ignored a ruling from LUBA that required it to treat the LUCS as a quasi-judicial decision; conducted undisclosed ex parte negotiations with Zenith regarding the LUCS application while actively litigating against Zenith over the same matter; blatantly disregarded legislated procedures for quasi-judicial decisions and its own rules and standards; attempted to withhold important information from the public; and otherwise acted arbitrarily and capriciously.”
Nick Caleb, climate and energy attorney at Breach Collective, said:
“We presented clear evidence to DEQ that the City of Portland failed to follow their own rules and processes in the Zenith decision. We also provided evidence of public records tampering, a misdemeanor under Oregon law. The response from the agency was to first ignore us and then to try to pass the buck. Governor Kotek and the DEQ have a duty to ensure that city actors are held accountable.”
On November 14, 2023, thirty-seven organizations – including unions, environmental organizations, community groups, and neighborhood associations – sent a letter to DEQ calling on the agency to use its full authority to assess the legal sufficiency of Zenith’s application, writing:
“It is not acceptable for state regulators to stand by, abide flagrant disregard for the law, disclaim authority to act in response, and ratify legally insufficient local decisions. We need you to do more for Oregon’s residents and the environment.”
Dineen O’Rourke, Campaign Manager at 350PDX, said:
“For years, thousands of community members have voiced their concerns over the dangers of Zenith Energy’s facility to our health, safety, and climate. And just last month, 50 people testified to the DEQ, urging them to deny Zenith’s air quality permit. We urge the agency to listen to the overwhelming majority of Oregonians, protect clean air, and deny this permit.”
Zenith’s draft air permit has not been released to the public and no definite timeline has been provided by DEQ for consideration and public comment.
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