Two environmental groups say they may sue the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for allowing an oil terminal at the mouth of the York River without properly considering the risks to endangered species.
The Center for Biological Diversity and the Virginia chapter of the Sierra Club, both based in Richmond, filed a letter of intent to sue on Thursday. The letter urges the Corps to reconsider the permit it issued to Plains Marketing in January 2013 that allowed the company to convert an oil refinery in Yorktown into a storage and transportation hub for crude oil.
“The Yorktown terminal poses a serious threat to endangered species like Atlantic sturgeon and sea turtles as well as the rivers and coastline they depend on, and the communities of the lower Chesapeake Bay,” Mollie Matteson, a senior scientist at the center, said in a statement.
A public affairs officer at the Norfolk District office of the Army Corps of Engineers said Thursday they haven’t yet received the notice, but when they do they’ll review and consider it.
The Yorktown terminal is operated by Houston-based Plains All American Pipeline LP. Crude oil brought in by train is offloaded onto vessels bound for refineries along the East Coast.
The environmental groups say an oil spill in the bay or along the coast could devastate marine life, in particular endangered Atlantic sturgeon, loggerhead sea turtles and Kemp’s ridley sea turtles.
The groups claim the 2013 permit doesn’t fully take those risks into account, as required by the Endangered Species Act.
In particular, their letter claims the “extremely small” population of Atlantic sturgeon in the York River was confirmed as a spawning population only in the last two years, is genetically distinct and “may be important to the overall genetic diversity of the species.” It says adult sturgeon are also in danger from ship strikes.
The presence of endangered sturgeon in the York and James rivers, and endangered sea turtles in the York obliged the Corps to consult with the National Marine Fisheries Service on potential risks to those species, which the groups say didn’t happen. They’re urging the Corps to consult with the fisheries service now, and their letter gives the Corps 60 days to do so.
To date, there have been no serious incidents reported at the Yorktown terminal, but it is at the end of a CSX rail line spur on which two oil train derailments have occurred in the last 17 months — in downtown Lynchburg in April 2014, and at Mount Carbon, W.V., in March of this year.
“Every day those trains run, the James River, York River and Chesapeake Bay are at risk of yet another serious oil transport accident like the one in Lynchburg that set the James River on fire,” said Glen Besa, director of the Virginia Sierra Club.
No one was injured in the Lynchburg derailment, in which three tanker cars carrying volatile Bakken crude careened down an embankment and into the river. One tanker burst open and exploded into a fireball that consumed nearly all its 30,000 gallons of crude.
Bakken crude originates in North Dakota and is known for being especially flammable.
Dietrich can be reached at 757-247-7892.
