A plan to construct a new petroleum unloading system at the Puget Sound Refinery in Anacortes has raised concern among islanders.

The proposed rail terminal would have the capacity to unload one 102-car unit train carrying crude oil per day, with a maximum of six trains per week.

The refinery is an unloading zone for crude oil, not a shipping point. According to Shell, once the oil is refined the majority is transported through the Olympic Pipeline; however, some does go onto tankers.

Islanders for Safe Shipping, a grass-roots advocacy group focused on shipping safety and oil spill prevention, wants to make sure the refinery doesn’t become a shipping point for crude.

“Numerous [crude] oil terminals are ramping up,” Safe Shipping’s Shaun Hubbard said. “The scary thing is—they’re not shipping points, but they could be.”

That’s why Hubbard and other Safe Shipping members have sent letters to Northwest Clean Air Agency, one of several government agencies overseeing permits for the proposed terminal.

In the letters, members of the group seek to prohibit transfer of crude oil from rail to ship, reducing the risk of more crude oil being shipped through the Salish Sea.

Katie Skipper, spokeswoman for NWCA said that shipping is not within the agency’s jurisdiction, but Safe Shipping wants its concerns on record, and NWCA is the only agency accepting public comments at this point in time.

NWCA has concerns of its own, like keeping the new terminal’s emissions of volatile organic compounds under .9 tons a year.

“Think of it along the lines of a big gas station,” Skipper said. “That’s about the amount of emissions allowed within permit.”

Volatile organic compounds are organic chemicals that have a high vapor pressure at a low temperature, which can mean large numbers of molecules evaporating and disrupting air quality. At the proposed rail terminal, potential sources for VOCs could be leaks from unloading equipment such as pumps and valves.

In August, Shell applied for a shoreline variance permit, as a prelude to building its rail terminal. Officials in Skagit County issued a determination that the proposed project would not have a significant impact on the waterfront.

That decision prompted an appeal filed by a coalition of environmental agencies including Friends of the San Juans. The appeal seeks to have the determination of non-significance reversed, calls for a complete environmental impact statement, and would prohibit Skagit County from issuing permits until it complies with state environmental regulations.

As proposed, the project would increase development over a 44-acre area near the shoreline, and would include railways over wetlands. The area is  populated with surf smelt, a fundamental link in the Salish Sea food chain, according to Friends Executive Director Stephanie Buffman.

The appeal is scheduled to be heard in December.

In addition to Skagit County permits, Shell will also need permit approvals from the  U.S. Army Corp of Engineers and the Washington state Department of Ecology before construction could begin. NWCA’s comment period closed Oct. 16.

According to Shell spokesman Jeff Gabert, the Anacortes refinery is looking to offset a decline of crude oil coming from Alaska. The rail project would bring 40-percent of the refinery’s supply of crude by rail, from the mid-west.

“There’s the potential for actually less crude oil transported by sea,” Gabert said.

Like the proposed Gateway Pacific Terminal at Cherry Point, the would-be rail terminal at the Shell refinery is another in a series of fossil fuel-based projects either in operation or on the horizon in northwest Washington. Two refineries in Ferndale, BP and Phillips 66, have terminals that can receive rail shipments of crude and Anacortes’ Tesoro refinery finished construction of a similar terminal two years ago.

Despite Shell’s suggestion that delivery of crude by rail could mean fewer tankers, islanders remain wary.

“Once an expansion happens it’s easy to keep expanding,” Hubbard said. “There’s the potential to expand to transporting or exporting, that’s where we come in.”