The Port and Fracking - NIMBY

From Shanghai to Olympia

The M/V Star Dieppe arrived this past Thursday from China, not to load lumber from the Port of Olympia, but to offload cargo. The cargo it was unloading is called ceramic proppants, for a company based out of Texas called Rainbow Ceramics. Proppants? What in the world is that you ask? From Wikipedia, "A proppant is a material that will keep an induced hydraulic fracture open, during or following a fracturing treatment, while the fracking fluid itself varies in composition depending on the type of fracturing used." Hydraulic Fracturing, or more commonly known as 'Fracking,' is a very controversial method of petroleum or natural gas extraction. Environmentalists, activists, and the people in areas that have been affected by fracking cite poisoning of the water table, harmful air emissions, increased earthquakes, and health complications as reasons as to why fracking should be stopped. Of course, the oil industry suggests otherwise. 

But I want to ask, if there is such a controversy, and the results aren't in with respect to its safety, why is the Port of Olympia supporting it by receiving proppants for Rainbow Ceramics? In western Washington, we don't have to think about fracking very often, because it's not happening in our backyard. But having had to face and still contend with our own Superfund Clean-up site at Northpoint, thanks to Cascade Pole, do we want our Port to be a participant in other communities' environmental problems? 

The M/V Star Dieppe is gone, its cargo unloaded, and fracking in the midwest, east, and south will continue...