<article><p>City planners in Portland, Oregon, want to change local zoning laws to allow Canadian midstream operator Pembina Pipeline to ship propane by pipe at its proposed west coast export terminal on the Port of Oregon.</p><p>Pembina this year announced plans to export propane out of a $500mn newly-constructed export terminal on the Port of Oregon.</p><p>The selected site is zoned as heavy industrial and supports two auto terminals and a container terminal. Under current regulations, the site is classified as an environmental conservation overlay zone in areas abutting the Columbia River and the Oregon Slough. That classification prohibits the transport of propane through the zone through pipe, while allowing for transport via rail, truck or ship. </p><p>To accommodate the project, the Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability has proposed changing the law to allow for the transport of propane by pipe in environmental overly zones in "limited circumstances," and amend the current environmental overlay map to include unprotected natural resources in the area. </p><p>The Pembina facility will source propane via one unit train every two days. The product will be offloaded into one of eight 125,000 USG (2,790 bl) offload tanks. The product will have to be transported via above-ground piping for loading onto ships, which violates current laws.</p><p>Environmental overlays were adopted in 1989 as part of the Columbia Corridor Industrial/Environmental Mapping project and updated in 2012 to include a more up-to-date version of the city's natural resource inventory. </p><p>The Portland Planning and Sustainability Commission will hold a public hearing on the proposal on 13 January. </p><p>eh/dcb</p><p><br> Send comments to <a href="mailto:feedback@argusmedia.com" target="_parent"> feedback@argusmedia.com </a></p><p><u><a href="http://www.argusmedia.com/Info/General/News" target="_TOP"> Request more information </a></u> about Argus' energy and commodity news, data and analysis services. </p><p><i> Copyright © 2014 Argus Media Ltd - <a href="http://www.argusmedia.com/" target="_TOP"> www.argusmedia.com </a> - All rights reserved. </i></p></article>
