Ebey's Landing Administrative History

Chapter Nine:
MANAGING RESOURCES

Another long-term resource issue in which the National Park Service and Island County have had an interest involves proposals for pipelines to refineries to the north.

The Northern Tier Pipeline Company received presidential approval in January 1980 to construct and operate a crude oil transportation system across the Puget Sound.A portion of the route would come ashore on Whidbey Island just north of Point Partridge. Approximately one-half mile of the ninety-foot corridor would cut through Ebey's Landing National Historical Reserve. Island County and the National Park Service opposed the pipeline because of possible damage to the fragile bluffs along the coast, and because of its potential to disrupt the landscape in general. (They also noted that an oil spill would devastate the environment.) [23]

The Northern Tier project died, in part because Governor John Spellman refused to allow its terminal to be sited at Port Angeles. However, three similar proposals for west-to-east pipelines surfaced in the early 1980s, the Trans Mountain (which proposed to cross Whidbey Island), Kitimat, and Northwest/Skagway pipelines. None of the projects went forward, although in 1991 Trans Mountain Oil Pipe Line Corporation revived its plans to build a pipeline. [24]