Methanol plant pause makes sense

Tacoma grass-roots activists have had their hits and misses trying to stop developments in recent years. Their inability to block the Union Avenue Walmart store and the Proctor Station apartment-retail complex would show up in the negative column of the batting scorecard.

But opponents of a proposed methanol refinery smashed a solid triple in the influence game when Northwest Innovation Works announced Friday it’s halting its $3.4 billion industrial venture. Time will tell whether the company restarts work on its application or pulls out of Tacoma entirely. If the latter occurs, the official stat keeper will have to upgrade that triple to a home run.

That the Chinese-backed company says it wants to better introduce itself to South Sounders, and hear directly from them, is a fair reason to take a break. Despite its previous outreach to neighborhood councils, City Council members, environmental groups and others, the company recognized it needs to build community trust before it tries to build a chemical plant. That won’t be easy, judging by the mood at a Feb. 10 public meeting where more than 1,000 turned out and nearly every speaker found fault with the proposed facility.

Critics have asked good questions about important issues such as public health, pipeline safety and the enormous water consumption of a plant that would produce 7 million tons of methanol a year. There’s also been a maelstrom of rampant speculation and misinformation surrounding the project — including off-the-wall conspiracies involving the visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping to Tacoma last fall — that has produced more heat than light.

The timeout will give Northwest Innovations a chance to address these issues head on. It also will afford local residents the benefit of watching and learning while another community goes first. The multinational company is forging ahead with its two other regional methanol partners along the Columbia River in Kalama and in Clatskanie, Oregon. A draft environmental impact statement is expected on the Kalama plant next month, with construction possibly getting underway early next year.

Hopefully, in time, Tacoma will resume its formal environmental review so a methanol plant here can rise or fall on its own merits. Many observers — including reputable organizations such as Citizens for a Healthy Bay — have withheld judgment until more science-based information is available.

It’s unclear whether the Tacoma hiatus will last several weeks, months or longer; a company spokeswoman said Monday the timeline is unclear. Regardless, elected leaders from the port and the city should seize this opportunity to launch an overdue dialogue with the public.

The bottom-line question: What level of industry will people tolerate on the Tideflats — not just on the 125 acres in question for this controversial project, but on the many hundreds of other acres available in Tacoma’s long-established industrial zone?

The answer must not be underestimated, unless economic development officials want to risk stumbling down this path again.

Yes, Americans live in an age of plastic when methanol is needed to make toys, phones and car bumpers. But we also live in an age of protest when platoons of well-organized, socially networked citizens can shape administrative decisions that were once outside their reach.

One determined group stopped a new Pierce County government headquarters from being built. Another group has now gummed up a lease agreement between the port and a chemical company. Who knows what they’ll come out swinging against next time?