[Vision2020] Wide, Wide Loads Opposed

Tom Hansen thansen at moscow.com
Sat Aug 14 06:45:27 PDT 2010


Courtesy of today's (August 14, 2010) Spokesman-Review.

 

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Wide, wide loads opposed

Huge oil equipment to move along scenic Idaho highway

Betsy Z. Russell, The Spokesman-Review

 

A scenic Idaho river canyon dotted with campgrounds, hiking trails and
historic sites could become the thoroughfare for hundreds of mammoth truck
shipments of Korean-built equipment for the Alberta oil sands project in
Canada - a prospect that's raising an outcry from residents, recreationists
and tourist businesses along the route.

 

But the project's biggest booster is Idaho Gov. Butch Otter, who welcomed it
long before locals heard about it. Otter says it'll be done right, but
critics aren't convinced and are concerned about Otter's handling of the
issue.

 

"People are passionate about this - they are really, really upset," said
Linwood Laughy, a retired educator and author who has lived in the
Clearwater/Lochsa river canyon since 1965, and first came to Lewiston in
1948. "There's a definite sense of betrayal, that these folks are working
for the oil companies and not for the citizens."

 

Laughy's home is right on Highway 12, where the truck shipments are proposed
to go. The route was designated as an Idaho scenic byway in 1989, and a
national "all-American road" dubbed the "Northwest Passage Scenic Byway" in
2005. It follows roughly the route that explorers Lewis and Clark took as
they sought a passage to the Pacific, and passes through the reservation of
the Nez Perce Tribe, which is opposing the shipments.

 

"This is truly a special place down here," said Laughy, who added, "tourism
is a pretty significant element of our economy in north-central Idaho - it's
the only growing industry."

 

The trucks are so huge that they'll take up both lanes of the two-lane
highway; running at night, they'll pull over every 15 minutes to let other
traffic pass, which otherwise will be blocked. The shipments would run for a
year.

 

Among those who've come out against the 200-plus truckloads, which will take
four days each to travel the 175-mile route from Lewiston to Lolo Pass on
the Montana border, are conservation groups, local business owners, river
rafters, fishermen, hiking enthusiasts and history buffs. Among those in
favor: boosters of the Port of Lewiston, which will receive the shipments by
barge and then send them on by truck.

 

In January 2009, Otter wrote a letter to the Port of Lewiston's
commissioners saying he was "honored" to "take this opportunity to encourage
Imperial Oil and ExxonMobil to utilize the Port of Lewiston." Otter wrote,
"I pledge our support and cooperation to enhance the development of this
important new business opportunity," which he also dubbed an "exciting
project."

 

Laughy said he and his neighbors didn't hear about the plans until April of
this year - and the first they heard was that it was a "done deal." However,
neither Idaho nor Montana has yet issued permits for the oversize loads; in
June, ITD held three public meetings about them in Lewiston, Moscow and
Kooskia.

 

Keith Allred, the Democrat who's challenging Otter in the November election,
said: "This is typical of the pattern we've seen with Gov. Otter: He listens
to a very narrow set of political supporters who have a vested interest in
the question at hand, takes their word for it and marches out a policy
proposal. And then we find out that the people that Otter didn't consult
with have very good objections, and it turns out to be problematic."

 

Among concerns area residents are raising are how someone headed to the
emergency room will get through when the big loads are taking up the whole
road; what will happen if there's an accident and a load goes into the
river; and how the nighttime transports will impact tourism, with
campgrounds and motels just yards from the highway.

 

Pius Rolheiser, spokesman for Alberta-based Imperial Oil, which is partly
owned by ExxonMobil, said the company has planned carefully for all those
issues. "Our goal is to carry out this project safely, efficiently and with
a minimum of impact," he said. "They're no noisier, no louder than a
standard semi-trailer transport, of which there are many on Highway 12."

 

In fact, tourist brochures about the river canyon warn about logging trucks
and other commercial vehicles, and the Idaho Transportation Department says
it has issued an average three to four permits for oversize vehicles a year
on the route for the last 10 years, mostly for farm equipment, boats, wind
turbine blades and the like. But ITD spokesman Jeff Stratten said, "We never
had a request for anywhere near this volume."

 

The trucks could weigh up to 337 tons, and be up to 29 feet wide, 27 feet
high and 227 feet long - about three times the length of a typical
18-wheeler.

 

Imperial Oil/ExxonMobil plans to move 207 of the high and wide loads,
starting in November. At the same time, ConocoPhillips has applied to move
four loads just as big across the same route to Billings starting this
month.

 

Petitions against both applications with more than 1,700 signatures have
been delivered to Otter, and ITD has received hundreds of letters and
e-mails about the plans, including a legal protest. Stratten said all the
concerns are being analyzed and responses to them will be posted on the
Internet in late August - but the ConocoPhillips loads are likely to be
approved and start moving before then.

 

Imperial Oil/ExxonMobil already has spent $440,000 to improve nine turnouts
along U.S. Highway 12, Stratten said.

 

Rolheiser said, "We're doing this work with no guarantee and no certainty."
But he said, "We have confidence in the process."

 

Residents say their biggest fear is that the project will turn the route
into a permanent high-and-wide commercial trucking corridor, to the
detriment of all other uses. Rolheiser said that's not Imperial Oil's plan:
"We have no designs on use of this route beyond this project."

 

The outcry's been even greater in Montana, where the route the big loads
will take to Canada rolls right through Missoula; there, the state
Transportation Department has been deluged with thousands of objections.

 

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The project's trucks will occupy both lanes of U.S. Highway 12 in the
Clearwater/Lochsa canyon.

 

http://media.spokesman.com/photos/2010/08/14/14_HIGHWAY_12_t620.jpg

 

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Equipment bound for a ConocoPhillips refinery in Billings is handled by
workmen at the Port of Lewiston on Sunday.

 

http://media.spokesman.com/photos/2010/08/13/Refinery_Move_Russ_t620.jpg

 

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Seeya at Farmers Market, Moscow.

 

Tom Hansen

Moscow, Idaho

 

"Corporations are an oppressed minority forced to move headquarters from
state to state in search of friendlier tax codes--sometimes being forced to
live just off our shores in tiny mailboxes." 

 

- John Oliver, The Daily Show

 

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