In the petition filed today with FERC, the Umatilla, Nez Perce, and CRITFC asserted that the decision violates FERC’s trust responsibility to the tribes by failing to analyze the proposal’s effects on treaty-reserved rights. In addition, the decision is unlawful under numerous federal laws including the National Environmental Policy Act, the Natural Gas Act and Energy Policy Act of 2005, the Clean Water Act, Coastal Zone Management Act, Endangered Species Act and the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act.

NorthernStar LLC’s application to build a LNG terminal at Bradwood Landing in the heart of the Columbia River estuary would irreversibly damage estuary functions and place another source of mortality and unnecessary risk on the Columbia Basin’s already depleted salmon populations.

“The tribes have been fighting for too long to restore the basin’s fish populations to stand by and watch a new large industrial development in the Columbia River estuary destroy what progress has been made,” said N. Kathryn Brigham, CRITFC chairwoman and secretary of the Umatilla Tribe’s Board of Trustees. “Protecting the estuary habitat is just another component to protecting fish populations at all stages of their lifecycle. The estuary habitat that will be damaged by the construction and operation of this terminal is essential to the survival of salmon at a critical stage in their life.”

On September 18th FERC, in a 4-1 opinion, approved NorthernStar LLC’s application to build a facility that would dredge 58 acres from the estuary, support up to five shipments weekly, discharge heated engine cooling water into the river system, and allow ships to extract large amounts of water from the Columbia for ballast through unscreened uptakes.