Port faces environmental review delays, trade woes

MOSES LAKE — Concerns that trade policy, federal regulation, and proposed legislation are beginning to affect business was high on the topic of conversation for commissioners of the Port of Moses Lake on Monday.

“There’s a trade war under way between the United States and the rest of the world, basically,” Port Executive Director Jeffrey Bishop told commissioners during a regular meeting.

Bishop referred specially to the recent air cargo shipments of cherries from the Grant County International Airport by a major regional fruit marketer. Bishop said the 50 percent tariffs imposed by the Chinese government in response to U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods significantly reduced the number of cherry shipments planned for China.

“The season ended prematurely,” Bishop said. “There were eight flights instead of 20.”

And that, Bishop added, is why there are lots of local specials on cherries right now.

Bishop also told commissioners that the project to extend the Northern Columbia Basin Railroad into the Port now faces additional potential delays that could put $20 million in state funding at risk.

The Port was required to redo the environmental assessment when it altered a portion of the proposed route 67 feet, and the initial confusion over which federal agency would oversee the project — the Federal Railroad Administration, which regulates federal rail safety programs, or the Surface Transportation board, which approves mergers and rail right-of-ways — has delayed the approval of revised environmental assessment until late 2019.

“That complicates the state grant,” Bishop said. “We have to spend state money before then, or reimburse the state.”

Bishop said he did not consider asking the federal government to expedite its environmental review a viable option, so he hoped the state legislature could be moved to extend the deadline for spending the grant money.

He also said administrative disarray in executive branch agencies is also holding the project up.

“The (Trump) administration suggests that things are better in respect to process, that there’s less red tape,” Bishop said. “But things aren’t moving faster. There’s a shortage of qualified environmental employees because of a hiring freeze.”

“The longer this goes on, the more costs go up,” said Commission President David “Kent” Jones.

Bishop also told commissioners that proposed changes to the law establishing the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States — CFIUS, the organization that oversees and approves foreign investment in the U.S. — could have some drastic implications for the Port.

Bishop said the proposed changes now include real estate deals and allow the committee to block investment near sensitive sites such as airports.

“This will dramatically affect our plans, and probably existing investment as well,” he said. “There’s one project that may have to look at any site in Grant County not close to the airport.”

Charles H. Featherstone can be reached via email at countygvt@columbiabasinherald.com.