Protect Columbia Estuary from Fuel Refinery
Letter to the Editor originally published in the Oregonian, January 5th, 2025.
Written by Joan Rothlein, PhD.
*Update: On January 7th, 2025 Oregon DEQ approved NXT's water quality permit. Read the latest here.*
Gov. Tina Kotek and the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality should decisively protect the Columbia River Estuary at Port Westward. The state must protect the health of the river and all the communities connected to it by denying a 401 water quality permit for a proposed NEXT Renewable Fuels, Inc. refinery, (“State grants air quality permit to proposed renewable diesel facility outside Clatskanie,” Sept. 1).
Houston-based NEXT, now called NXTClean Fuels, proposes a massive diesel refinery to be located on unstable soil behind levees prone to failure. It would threaten the safety of homes, family farms and a monastery.
This industry would potentially destroy over 100 acres of wetlands. Toxic runoff from the refinery would pollute the water, harming salmon and fish habitat. In the event of an accident, its storage tanks pose the risk of a major spill of toxic chemicals into the Columbia River. NEXT’s proposal does not yet comply with the Clean Water Act.
NEXT would also build rail tracks on land now zoned to protect agriculture. This is to accommodate high numbers of long trains transporting toxic, flammable and unsustainable feedstocks. NEXT will use fracked methane gas to produce non-conventional diesel and aviation fuel, becoming one of Oregon’s top greenhouse gas polluters and generating one million tons of greenhouse gases every year.
NEXT’s proposal is a bad idea — bad for clean water, clean air and human health. Will Gov. Tina Kotek’s legacy be the fouling of water, loss of salmon and new health harms to communities that rely on our Columbia River? Please deny this permit!
Joan Rothlein, PhD, Portland Rothlein is a member of the Healthy Climate Action Team of Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility.
Read the original letter to the editor on theoregonian.com
Take action to protect the Columbia River Estuary! Call Governor Tina Kotek today!
