Court upholds public records case ruling against Millennium

LONGVIEW, Wash. (AP) — A state appeals court has upheld a 2018 ruling that the state Department of Ecology did not violate the state Public Records Act in a case involving the proponent of a large coal export dock in Longview, Washington.

Millennium Bulk Terminals sued Ecology in 2017, arguing that the department failed to properly release records related to its environmental impact study of Millennium’s proposed coal dock.

A Thurston County Superior Court Judge disagreed in 2018, finding that Ecology searched adequately for the records. The state appellate court agreed with that decision Tuesday, The Daily News reported.

The judges pointed out that Ecology spent nearly 800 hours in an attempt to comply with Millennium’s document requests.

Ecology spokesman Jeff Zenk said the department is pleased with the ruling.

Millennium officials only said the ruling speaks for itself and declined to comment further.

It is another in a stream of court losses for the $680 million coal terminal project, which has been fought by environmentalists and some members of the medical community for about a decade.

Tuesday’s decision is relatively minor to the proposed coal terminal’s fate. It follows a January ruling by the state Supreme Court, which denied Millennium an aquatic lands sublease for the project.

The terminal would employ about 130 workers and take up to 1,000 construction workers to build, according to Millennium.