In the summer, Mary Lyons likened Cowlitz County to "the dumping ground of every project that nobody else wants,” at a meeting where locals opposed a nearby proposed $250 million biomass fuel plant project.
Months after her remarks about the countless proposed fossil fuel projects, Cowlitz County may have finally broken the spell: Agricultural giant Nutrien is proposing a $500 million to $1 billion potash fertilizer export terminal at the Longview port.
Potash is not a fossil fuel and carries no notable health risks from casual exposure. Instead, it’s a potassium-based fertilizer.
“I'm suspending my judgement until I hear more from both sides of the situation,” said Lyons, 73, of Longview this week when asked about the new project. “I think ‘cautiously optimistic’ would describe me.”
Nutrien's potential megaproject would mean 5 million to 6 million metric tons of the potassium salts mined in Canada would be shipped to Longview on trains before being loaded into more than 100 ships each year headed to Asia and beyond. That volume is worth roughly $2.5 billion to $3 billion.
Generally, when projects of that scale are announced in the county and around the Columbia River Basin, advocates for the environment and Native nations’ spring into action to oppose.
And they’ve been successful:
A 2022 study found that only six fossil fuel projects out of 55 that had been proposed in the Pacific Northwest in the decade leading up to then had been completed, with nine still in the works then.
But this time might be different.
Other local environmental advocates took a similar tone as Lyons.
“I view it as a positive,” said Diane Dick, a 71-year-old health advocate and former Kelso school director. “Maybe because all of these other projects that were so bad have been opposed and have failed, it made the port officials look a little bit harder. Maybe it was more incentive for them to find something that would be more palatable.”
Dick said potash was “less likely to be opposed” than other export commodities and added she also appreciated hearing about the project “before the ink is dried on the deal.”
But she also said she was skeptical about increased rail and shipping traffic, pointing to the impact pollution from idling ships may have on Longview’s already-bad air quality.
Lyons also expressed skepticism in county leadership’s ability to properly regulate the project and keep longshore workers — like her son and ex-husband — safe.
Dick added that the project won’t offer many local jobs because of automation. Neither Nutrien nor the Port of Longview have provided firm jobs numbers. Both entities also did not provide statements for this story.
Cowlitz Indian Tribe Chairman, Bill Iyall, said the tribe heard about the project in November.
“While limited information has been shared with us directly,” he said in a statement, “it’s clear that a project of this scale will require significant government-to-government consultation, with an eye toward protecting the health of the lower Columbia River and the natural and cultural resources it sustains.”
A representative for Alliance for Community Engagement Southwest Washington, which has opposed projects like Drax’s Longview biomass effort, had no comment on the project.
Spokespeople for Columbia Riverkeeper and Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fishing Commission took the same neutral stance for now.
The pair are two of the most powerful regional groups that work to protect the river’s ecology and treaty-reserved rights for Native nations. They, alongside broad coalitions, have fought many development projects along the river over the years — and currently oppose a number of projects.
While the port has received an uncommonly uniform and supportive response to the potential potash megaproject, the effort’s future is far from guaranteed. Senior Canadian officials are working to convince Nutrien to abandon the plan altogether, The Daily News reported last week.
