Methanol: Company gives us the runaround

Kudos to Tacoma Public Utilities board chairman Bryan Flint for ordering Northwest Innovation Works to “go away and don’t come back” until it can provide specifics about the impact of the proposed methanol plant on our utilities (TNT, 3-17).

The company’s smug response that the stalled environmental review process “is the appropriate avenue” for answering such questions is one more example of the runaround we’ve been getting.

Didn’t the company delay the environmental review so that it could have some time to communicate with the citizens of Tacoma? Yet when asked to provide some information, it demures on the grounds that the environmental review is not yet available.

What’s going on here? Pardon my paranoia, but I can’t help feeling suspicious under the circumstances about NWIW’s real reason for delaying the environmental review.

I moved from Seattle to Tacoma in 1979 and fell in love with it immediately. It has been a joy to watch our town grow and, in the process, restore Commencement Bay and our once-compromised natural resources.

Tacoma is now a clean, beautiful city. Let’s insist on keeping it that way.

This story was originally published March 17, 2016 at 11:12 AM with the headline "Methanol: Company gives us the runaround."