Stephanie Jackter - 5-22-2004 at 08:53 PM
Fears of a paradise lost
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Many worry gas plan will keep them away from Coronado Islands
By Diane Lindquist
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
May 20, 2004
JOHN GIBBINS / Union-Tribune
Fishermen on the San Diego-based boat Malihini motored past South Island, the largest of the Coronado Islands off the Mexican coast, on their way to
fish in the nearby waters Tuesday.
* Islands are barren but have a rich, storied past CORONADO ISLANDS, Mexico ? Fishermen, divers, bird-watchers and others who work and play next to
these islands fear not only that a proposed fuel receiving terminal would pose a serious environmental risk, but that a rare ocean resource may soon
be off-limits to all but ChevronTexaco.
"They're not just rocks," said Amy Berger, a director of SeaCamp, which takes thousands of youngsters from across the nation on snorkeling trips to
the islands each year.
"Our big concern is how much they're going to limit access to the islands and what it'll do to the islands," she said.
Known as the "Sentinels of San Diego Harbor," the Coronados ? eight miles off Tijuana's Playas neighborhood ? are the property of Mexico. President
Vicente Fox's administration is expected any day to give ChevronTexaco a 30-year concession to operate a liquefied natural gas facility near the
islands.
The $650 million project would dramatically change the view of the Coronados from the beaches of Rosarito to high-rises in San Diego.
ChevronTexaco, the only company bidding for the government concession to operate the facility at the Coronados, plans to anchor a platform about the
size of three football fields east of South Island, the largest of the group's four islands.
The platform would hold a re-gasification plant, storage tanks, and support operations and living facilities for 40 to 50 workers at a time. With the
island offering protection from wind and surf, tankers are expected to dock and offload fuel every four days.
Liquefied fuel would be re-gasified on the platform and then piped to the mainland for distribution in Baja California and Southern California.
"Baja California and California have a real need for an energy supply," said Carlos Atallah, the project's director. "We cannot sit and wait for bad
news to happen. This is a solution.
"The environmental impact has to be evaluated in this context," he said.
ChevronTexaco's project would not be as disruptive as proposals for other areas, and it would cost about 10 percent less, Atallah said. The most
notable of the other projects is a joint venture proposed by Sempra Energy and Shell on coastal property north of Ensenada. That project would require
construction of a breakwater.
NELVIN CEPEDA / Union-Tribune
Naturalists worry that the Coronado Islands, one of which houses a Mexican navy outpost, would be put at risk by building a liquefied natural gas
facility near them. "You have an area that we have done a great deal of study on and have concluded .?.?. the project will have the least impact on
the environment," Atallah said.
ChevronTexaco is aware of the concerns of those who visit the waters near the islands, he said. "We are doing everything in our power to accommodate
those concerns."
Some commercial and sport fishermen worry about an exclusion zone around the platform. They fear they would lose access to a prime area for catching
scale fish or gathering sea urchins.
"It'll kill us," said Francisco Javier L?pez, who fishes out of Popotla. About 100 families in the village south of Rosarito subsist on the marine
life caught in waters surrounding the Coronado Islands, he said.
Fishermen and others are equally concerned about an attempt by Mexican congressional opponents to kill the project with legislation to create a
special nature preserve around the islands. They suspect it might ban them as well as ChevronTexaco.
"The ability to view the islands up close from the water shouldn't be taken away," said Myron Ackerman, director of the nonprofit San Diego Oceans
Discovery Institute and co-owner of a boat that takes people out to see the Coronados.
JOHN GIBBINS / Union-Tribune
Tim Green, owner and captain of the San Diego-based sportfishing boat Malihini, pulled up a yellowtail during Tuesday's fishing trip to the Coronado
Islands.
"People in San Diego know the islands are there, but that's about all they know about them," Ackerman said. "They have no idea of what takes place out
there."
Assessing the threat
Two months ago, leaders of the Sportfishing Association of California sought a meeting with ChevronTexaco executives to discuss the project.
San Diego sportfishing vessels contribute $49 million and 1,200 jobs a year to the local economy, according to the San Diego Sport Fishing Council.
"The industry needs the fishing area around the islands. It has been using it for 50 years. It's probably one of the top 10 spots we fish
continually," said Bob Fletcher, the association's director. "People are absolutely stunned at the vibrancy of life out there."
ChevronTexaco representatives assured them the project poses no threat to their livelihoods. But association members have doubts, Fletcher said. The
company hasn't identified the location for the platform or the restricted zone.
"For the time being, we feel like they're listening," Fletcher said. "But the devil's always in the details."
Atallah said the zone would extend about 650 yards in all directions around the platform. It would be far enough from South Island to allow fishing
and recreational access.
While he wouldn't speculate on passage of the nature preserve legislation, he lauded the concept.
"Our facility is not incompatible with that proposal," Atallah said. "We can be a facilitator in making the island a preserve. We can make it happen."
The project's impact on fish, birds and mammals is far from certain, however. And that troubles many in San Diego and Baja California whose
livelihoods and recreation center on the islands.
"I think it's been kept very quiet," Barbara Moore, a San Diego naturalist, said of the project. "I don't see how they could have enough knowledge and
technical skill to avoid damaging the ecosystem."
She and others believe the operation would endanger many of the creatures that make the Coronados a teeming natural wonderland.
"ChevronTexaco and Mexico are risking a rare, valuable resource that both countries share," said Alfonso Aguirre Mu?oz of Ensenada, director of a
group dedicated to conserving the islands' ecology.
"We have to fight for something that should be preserved for future generations," he said. "If we lose it, we will have lost a lot."
Aguirre criticized ChevronTexaco's environmental impact statement for not addressing endangered species. He said it was created for another project
off the Texas coast.
"They are cheating. They are using a concept from the Gulf of Mexico and saying it will be something like this," he said. "It's absurd the Mexican
government is analyzing such a document."
Atallah called the accusation "absolutely false." A team of specialists has spent two years researching the potential effect, he said.
"This area has been selected very carefully after a study of the coastline from San Francisco to Ensenada," he said.
Underwater life includes sea urchins, snails, jellyfish, mussels, yellowtail, bonita, barracuda, black sea bass, ling cod, whales, dolphins and the
bright orange garibaldi, which is California's state marine fish.
Pelicans, cormorants, herons, oystercatchers, gulls, osprey, phalaropes, terns and other seabirds are permanent or part-time residents.
Harbor seals and sea lions bask at the water's edge. A colony of elephant seals uses the Coronados to mate, rest and give birth.
ChevronTexaco's platform would sit in the path of California gray whales that migrate past the islands each year.
Bird perils
Naturalists and bird-watchers especially worry about the fragile fate of a pair of peregrine falcons and the region's largest breeding colony of
Xantus' murrelet. The United States and Mexico list both as protected species.
The Xantus' murrelet is in particular peril, they say. Conservationists say the nocturnal birds are drawn to lights and might crash into those at the
fuel terminal. The lights also might disrupt their breeding, nesting and feeding.
"They can't change a pattern that has developed over thousands of years just because there is a platform with lights," Aguirre said.
Atallah said seabirds, including Xantus' murrelet, aren't bothered by lights at the Mexican navy outpost on South Island or the much brighter
lighthouse.
Nevertheless, he said, ChevronTexaco plans to employ experts over the next year to determine how to best reduce the effect on the birds.
"Our project will have the minimum possible number of lights and will be specially designed to minimize the impact. We'll have lights pointed toward
the coast and not toward the island," he said.
The platform's distance from South Island would be enough so that the habitat of the seals and sea lions won't be significantly affected, Atallah
said. "It leaves a good space for any kind of activity currently going on in the island."
Fish are not abundant in the area where the platform would be, because the sea bottom there is flat and sandy; fish prefer rocky terrain. The company
has offered to cover its pipeline to shore with riprap to create a fish feeding area.
Additionally, Atallah noted, California gray whales migrate without harm from Alaska to the southern part of the Baja California peninsula mingling
with the heavy traffic of tankers and cargo ships at 10 West Coast ports. Therefore, he said, it's unlikely their journey would be affected by the
less-active fuel terminal.
"It's by far the best project being proposed," Atallah said.
Besides causing less disruption to the environment, he said, the offshore location provides additional safety from accident or sabotage.
"There's an extensive list of stakeholders, and we can't identify all of them," Atallah said. "But we are happy to meet with anyone and we are happy
to accommodate them when we can."
Margie - 5-22-2004 at 10:53 PM
This project still has not yet been approved, however, the Plant which has been approved is located 14 miles north of Ensenada, in a pristine, virgin
area on 300 acres of land.
The questions are, will this plant (and others is approved) resemble Enron's Dabhol project in India?
Why are the big oil companies moving to Baja California? What will be the environmental effects ?
We are hearing rants that we have low oil-reserves and this is a cheaper, less-polluting, energy source. The fact is that VP Cheney & Shrub directly
participated in engineering energy industry collusion in manufacturing these gross artificial shortages.
Further, the big oil corporations are simply using Mexico to access US markets while subverting US environmental laws and avoiding US opposition to
ocean pollution industry. The majority of the product is US bound - 80% bound for the US, not for Mexico. The "Profits" are going to the big US
corporations, the jobs that will be made availabe to Mexican citizens will be minimal in ratio to their population. So far, only 1,660 jobs will be
open from the Ensenada plant.
"Not in my backyard" is a scream the major oil corporations are not having to deal with by placing these proposed terminals and plants in Mexico.
More and more, LNG safety records are being buried: Patriot Act Restricts Access to LNG Saftey Records, http://www.lngwatch.com/facts.html
Further, the subject of quality of LNG
product is dubious at best , especially in Mexico: Inconsistent quality of natural gas raises safety concerns. By the way, you can get a good look at
what this plant in Ensenada will look like, more or less, at this site. Many of you out there are familiar with this area, you will clearly see the
devastating effects that this ugly sore will have on the landscape level alone.
This is not a step forward for Mexico, this is a step backwards toward 19th centruy industrialization, worse yet, it will line the pockets of the
carpetbaggers and imperialists from the north.
For any of you who might be interested in LNG related articles, log on to Greenpeace . Updates and summary of the recent Energy Bill (HR6) can be
found at :Ravyne's Nest: Envrionmental Watch Archives.
[Edited on 5-23-2004 by Margie]