The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) and the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) wrote letters for public comment that have identified significant negative impacts of this project.
The WDFW has stated that the construction of large buildings and the associated paving to create driveway and parking spaces will block the rainfall from absorbing into the soil and restrict the runoff and floodwater in the critical aquifer recharge areas. Simply put, this would be paving over land that should be left to absorb the rain and flood waters.
Negative impacts also include the contamination that the 800-plus trucks in and out a day that will be at the proposed warehouse multiplied by the number of tires on each tractor and trailer resulting in additional pollution (not to mention that what these warehouses may be used for is an unknown and the international developer has been known to lease to tenants that use, store, or move toxic and hazardous chemicals).
The WSDOT has multiple concerns including that the data provided significantly underreported daily vehicle trips when comparing for similar sized buildings as proposed. The plan for the warehouses states 800-plus trucks and trailers per day is for the trucks to travel west on Reynolds to Johnson Road and then to Harrison.
Just imagine 800-plus trucks per day in and out of this warehouse project. There are only 1,440 minutes in a day, so that’s more than one truck a minute, 24 hours a day turning in or out. Additionally, the traffic study that was paid for by the international developer determined that there would not be any impact by the train. That’s worth noting again, that they propose the 800-plus trucks would NOT be impacted by the train.
Is there anyone in Centralia that has not been impacted by the train? How many minutes have we sat? That many trucks are sure to have an impact.
The proposal said that there would be no impact on Centralia as the trucks would only go west on Reynolds, to Johnson Road, then down Harrison. Excluding the nightmare that this would be, what about the trucks that would get tired of waiting and head east on Reynolds to then go over the Pearl Street bridge over the Skookumchuck: the narrow bridge leading into town.
The impact of traffic and all of the pollution of both the rolling and idling trucks, wear and tear on the tires creating added pollution, with all of those pollutants washing right into the Skookumchuck every time it rains and especially when it floods would be catastrophic on this area and all of Centralia.
We thought waiting on the train was bad before? Add 1,600 trucks a day, and it’ll be near impossible.
Clearly they are basing this project on misinformation and again. The WSDOT is concerned that 800-plus trucks is a significant underreport of warehouses this size.
Jeremy Asbeck
Centralia
