I really enjoyed the piece on the proposed Coastal Research Center to be build in Charleston.

As the director of OCEAN of Oregon and a member of Citizens Against LNG, it was a breath of fresh air, to say the least, to read this article. Now, after spending several years dealing with issues regarding proposals for the development of our unique Coos Bay Estuary, it is plain to see that someone is listening. Over the past years, the citizens of Coos County have heard several proposals that would destroy irreplaceable habitat, endanger our fishing industry and forests or steal citizens’ land to bury gas pipelines. It’s easy to see here that the people of Coos County and the residents of the Bay Area are a little bit gun shy to say the least of another proposal, especially one that has the involvement of the Oregon International Port of Coos Bay.

After my review of some comments that were presented to the editor, I felt is necessary to respond and clarify that what I feel may be the essence of the issue here.

If one takes the time to read between the lines, the message here is plain and simple, actually it seems it’s more of a question and here it is. Why would the state of Oregon invest in and build one of the west coast’s premier research facilities and then at the same time let the port destroy the surrounding habitat with an unneeded liquefied natural gas facility? It also is important to note that the proposed widening of the shipping channel would sound the death bell for much of our salmon, crab, clam and eel grass habitat. This habitat must be protected at all cost especially when you consider that our now endangered fishing fleet may not be able to recover form another direct hit on the health of our estuary.

When the port was granted $5 million seed money from our state for the container proposal and shipping channel widening last year, there were some conditions laid down by our Legislature.

No money was to be released to the port unless there was a signed agreement between the railroad (RailAmerica), the terminal developer (Maersk), and the port. Although none of these conditions have been met, the port has decided to continue with their destructive endeavor. It is no wonder the people of the Bay Area are apprehensive about the research facility proposal, too.

It seems here that the positives far outweigh the negatives and the marine research center proposal could be just what this community needs to springboard the Bay Area into a positive direction. After all, how could one go wrong with the creation of many jobs combined with the knowledge and experience of the highly regarded professionals that will be working at the research facility.

This facility looks to me like a step in the right directions and we won’t have to give away a 235-mile long swatch of Oregon to create these jobs.