The proposed fracked crude oil transfer facility should not be built because of the 2005 Energy Policy Act, and the results of it; in particular, a part of this act referred to as the "Halliburton loophole.”
This is a provision that allows oil companies to keep secret which proprietary chemicals and the amount of, they use in their hydraulic fracturing process. The problem for us, the Port of Vancouver, and the Washington state Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council is the fracked crude oil Tesoro/Savage wants to transport here, contains a significant amount of dangerous fracking fluid chemicals, and the companies that have done the fracking have no intention of revealing those chemicals to anyone. They certainly will not give these chemical lists to a competitor like Tesoro/Savage.
The amount of chemicals used per well is not trivial. A small well, using one million gallons of water, uses 10,000 gallons of chemicals, some of which are considered harmful to humans in parts per million. You can get a partial list of chemicals used in fracking from "FracFocus" a voluntary registry.
The problem being, a significant amount of those chemicals are still in the fracked crude oil, and will stay in it until they are refined out. If we allow this terminal to be built, we are blindly accepting all of the chemicals used for fracking now and all of the chemicals that may be used in the future.
There is no way for anyone to evaluate the mechanical apparatus necessary, and the procedures necessary, to handle,store and transfer this fracked crude oil with these chemicals and their toxic fumes, if we don't know the characteristics all of the chemicals used. Emergency procedures can not be constructed or evaluated. We can't make the oil companies give up their lists of fracking chemicals, but we can say no to this facility.
Don Orange is the candidate against this facility. Please vote for Don Orange for Port of Vancouver commissioner.
