Dear Safe Shippers, Washington State Department of Ecology (Ecology) is working on a new ruling which will determine how much Class 1 facilities (oil refineries, pipelines, and marine oil-handling terminals) will have to pay in the event of an oil spill.Ecology says a large oil spill could cost the state nearly $11 Billion. Yet…their new rule […]

Santa always finds out knows who’s naughty or nice! Across the Salish Sea from our islands, Phillips 66 Refinery in Ferndale hasn’t been nice. Without a permit or environmental review, they unlawfully modified and expanded their infrastructure.   Our friends at Friends of the San Juans submitted a Code Enforcement Investigation Request to Whatcom County, but no apparent action was […]

Roberts Bank Terminal 2 (RBT2) has been approved by the Canadian government. Less than a mile away from the US/Canada border, RBT2 is a new container ship terminal project that would wreck the hard work we in Washington are doing to protect and recover our endangered Southern Residents and their critical habitat. • RBT2 is HUGE! […]

Accidents happen! In 2003, a pristine Suquamish tribal estuary was damaged due to an un-contained oil spill across the Sound in Edmonds. As a result of this preventable debacle, Washington State’s Department of Ecology (Ecology) enacted requirements for safer vessel oil transfers. That’s great, but they can do better! There is a leaky loophole which still […]

Let’s celebrate ­some good news from 2022 to warm us up for a new year of Safe Shipper action! We resolve to do our best in 2023 to keep our Salish Sea a safe and healthy home for all. April 2022: Fracked Gas-to-Methanol Company Abandons Refinery Proposal on the Columbia RiverVictory is declared over the […]

Dear Safe Shippers, Let’s end out this year with a gift to our Residents of the Salish Sea! We are needed to take quick action for orcas because a proposed fossil fuel project in Tacoma barely considers them.  THE PROJECT • SeaPort Sound Terminal in Tacoma would like to expand, increasing its fossil fuel storage capacity […]

Dear Safe Shippers, We recently lost our superhero, Louisa Nishitani, co-founder and inspiration behind San Juan Islanders for Safe Shipping (aka Safe Shippers). Safe Shippers began in 2012 as a way to coalesce islanders in our fight against the proposed coal export terminal at Cherry Point. There was Louisa, up at dawn, handing out her home-printed leaflets (which she wrote herself) […]

CELEBRATE!Thanks to the legal work of Friends of the San Juans, Phillips 66 has given up on an expansion project at the Ferndale refinery! For more information on this win for the Salish Sea: The sunken Aleutian Isle was finally raised and the remaining diesel onboard was removed! What have we learned from this? When […]