Portland General Electric stores up to six months of coal in a pile outside its power plant outside of Boardman, Ore. At this there is nearly 100 million tons of coal in the pile.
credit:
Courtney Flatt
Plant manager Loren Mayer looks out over the roof of PGE's coal-fired power plant in Boardman, Ore. He says coal dust can be handled, you just have to know how to do it.
credit:
Courtney Flatt
A grain barge is being loaded at the Port of Morrow. The grain will be shipped to Asia, where coal could also be shipped. Port of Morrow general manager Gary Neal says shipping coal would just be another commodity, like grain.
credit:
Courtney Flatt
A railroad snakes through the Port of Morrow. The empty space to the right is where the Boardman part of the Morrow Pacific Project could be located.
credit:
Courtney Flatt
A portion of the Port of Morrow from the other side of the river. The Morrow Pacific Project could be located in the empty space to the left.
credit:
Courtney Flatt
The Morrow Pacific project would transfer millions of tons of coal from barges to ships at this 1,200-foot dock at the Port of St. Helens. The entire transfer would happen on the water.
credit:
Cassandra Profita
Mike and Candy Seely grow mint on a 450-acre farm near Clatskanie. The edge of their field is just a quarter-mile from the dock where Morrow Pacific would transfer millions of tons of coal from barges to ships.
credit:
Cassandra Profita
Trying to wash coal dust off mint plants would also wash away valuable mint oil that the Seely farm uses to make peppermint chocolates.