Yellow Pages
A test run of loading prilled sulfur onto a ship docked at the Port of Anacortes’ Pier 2 went better than expected Sunday, according to John Hachey, port operations and facilities director.
From the production side, the operation went smoothly, Hachey said. As for the neighbors who questioned the consequences of the activity, the operation calmed their fears, he said.
However, Carol Springs, who lives on V Avenue just east of the loading pier, said she is still against the port entering into an agreement with the Shell Puget Sound Refinery to ship the material.
Springs said the port did a good job at containing the sulfur during Sunday’s test. She also said she thought the port is trying to do the best it can handling a “noxious waste product” and shipping it out of the middle of the city.
But she still opposes it.
“Because its a noxious waste product,” she said.
Shell approached the port about a year ago about shipping sulfur, a byproduct of the refinery operations, once it was converted into prills or pellets by Sulex, a division of Marsulex, which operates in Skagit County.
The port and the city will also have to approve the shipping operation, a State Environmental Policy Act checklist would have to be completed and the port’s permit from the Northwest Clean Air Agency would have to be amended.
If the project does move ahead, Shell and other refineries would contract with Marsulex. And Marsulex would contract with the port for a five- to 10-year contract with a two-year termination notification.
