Wednesday, March 04, 2009

Harbor and Freshwater Pulp fate's are married. Citizens Port Development Meeting Update.

I went to the CITIZENS FOR PORT/RAIL DEVELOPMENT meeting today at the Samoa Cookhouse. Found out that they are blogging now at the link I provided. Also saw on Cap's blog that the North Coast Rail Authority will start functioning on the southern portion of the rail system by October this year!

Humboldt Bay Recreation & Conservation District CEO David Hull said they are trying to tap into some of the “Stimulus” funds for Port Development, and have a huge advocate in Congressman Mike Thompson. Hull, Port Terminal supporters from RAPIT and union leaders met with Thompson to discuss funding for the Project. Mike’s District runs pretty close to most northern union districts, so leaders there represented about 45,000 workers who are interested in seeing some of the 3 Billion dollars in State Transportation stimulus monies creating jobs in Humboldt County. Thompson is going to help in any way he can.

Now the bad news

Hull said there is a Harbor budget meeting next Thursday that will be critical to the Harbor’s viability. He feels if they district loses any staff such as the bar pilots or others, this would have a huge snowball in shutting down the harbor district. If there is less than a million tons of product being distributed in shipping annually, there is a drop in funding for dredging. Less dredging, less certain ships that need deeper channels. Then fill in is a problem. And so on.

The Pulp Mill is a huge piece of the Harbor’s future. Meetings with Freshwater Pulp representatives revealed that product would not be leaving the local dock until October at the earliest. And this is contingent with Freshwater Pulp coming to an agreement/permit with the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board regulatory agency. The rescheduled public hearing to consider termination of the Evergreen Pulp/Freshwater Pulp NPDES permit, barring anything unforeseen, will occur on April 23 in Fortuna.

If either the Harbor District or the Pulp Mill do not continue operations, both will die. They are now pretty much bound together for survival.

31 comments:

Anonymous said...

But those bar pilots cost a lot don't they? What do they do when there aren't any ships?

samoasoftball said...

Mike: Shhhh! No one is supposed to ask that! I have no idea what they do when there are no ships. I know when we have no chip trucks, like now, we have no work. And of course, the truck drivers have no work. I am sure this will be brought up at the budget meeting.

Anonymous said...

Are you sure it is "Freshwater Pulp"? Google "Clearwater Pulp Inc" and note the very first web address.

Anonymous said...

I di and this is waht you get

"ClearWater Pulp, Inc.Evergreen Pulp Incorporated mill has ceased operations. (C) Copyright 2009 Evergreen Pulp Inc."

I think Bar Pilots are paid ship or not, saliered but broke down hourly so if they have OT they are paid it. Least they are here in PDX

Anonymous said...

Both bar pilots receive an annual salary of $125,000 each--doesn't matter if there is one ship per month or one ship per year.

Is there enough work for the tugs to stay in Humboldt Bay? What about the stevedore company? Is there any work here for the long shoremen? What will Arkley do with his dock and warehouse?

If the pulp mill goes down, so does Fairhaven Power. How will the saw mills get rid of their hog fuel and chips? Humboldt Redwood Company's power boiler can't handle the volume. Maybe the power plant in Blue Lake will start up soon.

Humboldt County will be a retirement community if the pulp mill is scrapped.

Anonymous said...

If the Humboldt Baykeepers or Mark Lovelace has anything to do with it they are both dead...and that
is just what they want...

Anonymous said...

"If the Humboldt Baykeepers or Mark Lovelace has anything to do with it they are both dead...and that
is just what they want..."

Yeah, we hear that all the time..NOT!

Anonymous said...

Buettner,have a beer with Richard. You both are to blame for this. HOW? You vote right along with the HCDCC lib BS,thats how. Enjoy your baykeeper parties cause thats all you're gonna get. They'll be no paycheck for working folks from good ol'Pete.

Anonymous said...

Does the Harbor District still have that marketing guy they hired from the Port of Oakland? I think he gets something like $100k too.

Anonymous said...

Wilson Lacy is the maritime marketing director receiving $100,000 annual salary. What has he done for port development? What has the harbor distric done for Humboldt Bay commerce? They rode on the coat tails of the pulp mill's break bulk shipping and did nothing to help reduce shipping costs. Humboldt Bay is one of the most expensive ports on the West Coast for break bulk shipping. Two companies that promoted shipping on Humboldt Bay with fair pricing is SSA Pacific and Security National and these two companies will support Freshwater Pulp.

Anonymous said...

Freshwater Pulp intends to convert its pulp into finished paper. The finished paper will be sold in the United States. The product will be transported via truck or rail.

Anonymous said...

So does Freshwater Pulp have a paper mill somewhere else or are they going to build one here?

Anonymous said...

If everything is moved by barge then you don't need bar pilots or as deep of an entrance. Sounds like over spending based on a big port fantasy is the real threat to the district.

Anonymous said...

9:57..just another way the libs
say no and try to shut everything
down..

Anonymous said...

Sounds like reality is hard to take. Must blame the mystic "libs".

Anonymous said...

Oops, mythic, not mystic.

Anonymous said...

Libs are mystic too.

Anonymous said...

Libs may be mystic, but they are not cause of the fiscal problems at the Harbor District.

Anonymous said...

Your conclusion "If either the Harbor District or the Pulp Mill do not continue operations, both will die" is incorrect. The pulp mill intends to discontinue selling pulp to foreign countries. Instead, it will convert its pulp into paper for sale to the U.S. market. In this case, transport by ship or barge is not essential. Trucking and rail will be the the preferred method of transport.

Anonymous said...

Barges may not be essential but useful. They could be used to bring in wood chips or take out containers of pulp to rail heads. Still, barges do not require bar pilots, as deep of an entrance, a train, a highway or any of the other very expensive personnel or infrastructure. Back to basics.

Anonymous said...

Selling a paper product domestically, and produced by domestically by a domestic owner and his valued unionized middle class employees. What a novel idea.

Maybe Wall St. should have 'capitalized' on that idea awhile back instead of the investments it made (through lobbying and dollars) to push for offshore manufacturing along with accepting worthless real estate investments.

One thing which will come out of all this, once our country hits rock bottom of course, is that there will be a national debate over moving all of our manufacturing out of the country and the economic results of doing so.

We have finally reached the point in time where the loss of all these middle class jobs has finally had an impact on the country.

One last note, who is going to stand up and demand that our government halt the 'dumping' of low labor cost paper coming from overseas into our country?

Anonymous said...

We didn't move it, the public demands it. The public wants cheaper products and products made here are not cheaper due to taxation, regulation and labor costs. Union bosses and their cronies may not like Wal-Mart but the public does. Wal-Mart is growing while everyone else is shrinking. It has always amazed me that the liberals hate Wal-Mart so much despite the fact that the community gets cheaper goods and the poorer you are the more helpful they can be. Of course, the new cigarette taxes are nothing more than a way to get some of that welfare back since most smokers are poor. The Democrats.....the champions of the poor and downtrodden. ROFLMAO

Anonymous said...

Freshwater Pulp's vision is:

Red, White, Blue....."GREEN".

The Samoa Pulp Mill has many unique features. We believe we can position our paper as different from all other competitors. Foreign or Domestic!

1) The mill is located on a California peninsula
2) The chip supply will be limited to the Redwood Coast Region, which is the most valued confier species on the planet
3) We live in the most populated State in the USA and a State that supports Green products
4) The mill will supply an all American Product.
5) The mill will strive to be the Greenest mill on the planet.

Our desire is to convert the mill into an integrated pulp and paper mill that produces fine writing paper and copy paper.

Additional jobs will be added and we will eliminate extra handling and transportation cost.

This should be a vision supported by Democrats, Republicans and the Green Party. Now stop your bickering and help us. If you want to help write your Congressman Mike Thompson's local office and tell them you support Freshwater Pulp Company and you want to see the Company succeed.

Anonymous said...

So how can Thomson help the pulp mill. What do we ask him to do specifically?

samoasoftball said...

Mike Thompson
317 3rd Street, Suite 1
Eureka, CA 95501
Phone: (707) 269-9595
Fax: (707) 269-9598

or e-mail at

http://mikethompson.house.gov/contact/email.shtml

Ask Thompson to help with the permitting process to allow the current outfall permit to be passed on for Freshwater Pulp would be a good start.

It may also be prudent to just drop a line to let Mike know that you support Freshwater Pulp's concept of making a finished "Green" product here in Humboldt County.

Now who would oppose that?

Anonymous said...

Don't forget 4:42, the mill also uses an alternative to the traditional bleaching process for brightness. This should also be included in your marketing approach.

Anonymous said...

When it comes to your pocket book Richard,you can seem sane. If you keep supporting baykeepers,nec and HCDCC radicals you won't get your paycheck.Thompson can be helpful but the real problem is the stinky Cheesebro. Watch out for his smile as he stabs you in the back. Just look at the job killing list of legislation he's introduced.

Anonymous said...

There are two issues before Mike Thompson today.

1) A congressional variance for a waste discharge permit. The issue is EPA is not allowed to recognize the difference between receiving waters of an ocean vs. a river. Congress can. Our BOD limits currently run higher than mills who have secondary treatment plants. However, our BOD level is a non-issue as proven by science. Anyone who wants to review the science is welcome to do so. We are not a polluter. In fact, all mills with secondary treatment are harming the environment and their effluent, other than BOD, is not as clean as ours.

Second, we have requested a $400 million dollar Federal Loan Guarantee. The money would be directed to put in a finished paper line, add more environmental equipment and process controls. This would include a new chip handling facility and improved feeding system. This is a great project for the Federal Government. They would actually get a return on their investment. What a concept! The improvements would put the pulp mill in compliance for the next 40 years. The mill would be the model for others to follow.

So the message is: Support a Federal Loan Guarantee and, or Support a Congressional variance. Preferably the first.

Anonymous said...

who is we

Anonymous said...

Everyone should realize that if the mill goes 100% domestic production (doubtful) and the pilots, tugs, stevedore companies and infrastructure disappear then the channel begins to shoal in and the deepwater port is gone. You can forget about the Redwood Marine terminal project. Tourism and barges won't cover it.

Anonymous said...

What about the smell? I am moving to the area and have heard complaints about the smell that used to waft over the local communities. If the mill goes back into production with its new plan, will the smell come back?