Utilities

Meet Steve Wick. He’s a Yamhill County hazelnut farmer who’s so old-school he still calls them filberts. He’s an anti-LNG activist, self described “big mouth”, and if all goes according to plan, a soon to be viral video sensation

Wick stars in a new YouTube video (see below) that’s trying to get people’s attention about the Palomar Pipeline, a 220-mile natural gas pipeline that runs through the heart of Oregon’s wine country, Willamette Valley farm land, and the Mt. Hood National Forest. “Oregon’s bread basket,” as Wick likes to call it.

For Wick, it’s a personal battle. The proposed route runs through the middle of his small farm, cutting a 150-foot wide path in a field where he wants to plant grapes and across 20 acres of forest that he and his wife have nurtured since moving here in 1992. If the pipeline goes in, Wick won’t be able to plant those grapes or replace the trees that would be cut down. Just the idea that a pipeline might come in means there’s not much he can do with his property until the issue is settled. “I’m up in limbo here,” he says.

Wick isn’t alone. He tells of one neighbor whose organic farm will be destroyed by the Palomar Pipeline. Others he knows will lose chunks of their hazelnut orchards.

And one more thing. “A lot of people don’t know about this,” says Wick. One of the partners in this project is NW Natural Gas, the home-grown, Portland based company that’s been around since before Oregon was a state. In Wick’s view, “They’re doing this to Oregon and there’s no need for it.”

It’s that last point that has become the central message for Wick and others working to block the pipeline. They formed a campaign called Hey! NW Natural that’s using social media tools like Facebook and Twitter to get NW Natural customers and shareholders involved in the fight against Palomar. Well known environmental groups like the Oregon Sierra Club, Columbia Riverkeeper, Bark and Friends of Living Oregon Waters are helping to spread the word.

Monica Vaughan is one of the organizers of the social media effort, which kicked off less than a week ago. “We’re asking NW Natural customers,” she says, “to think about where your gas is coming from.” Like Wick, she says most people in the Portland area aren’t aware that the utility is developing the pipeline. She hopes the video and website will help farmers tell their stories, and convince customers to take action to block Palomar. Future plans include handing out anti-LNG inserts that can be mailed in with utility bills and anti-LNG stickers to slap on natural gas meters.

Her goal, get NW Natural to drop Palomar before its next stockholder meeting in May of 2010.

Ask Wick what’s so bad about Palomar and he can list a number of things. Like others in the anti-LNG movement he says none of the natural gas that will flow through Palomar will serve people in Oregon, even though our state will feel all the impact. The Palomar website is vague on the point, saying it will deliver gas to Oregon and “other western states”. For many anti-LNG’ers, that means its really going to California.

Palomar is also controversial because it ties in to the proposed Bradwood Landing LNG Plant on the Columbia River near Astoria. Opponents are concerned that Bradwood poses a risk to salmon habitat, to fishing and shipping on the river, and is a danger to public safety. Without Palomar, Bradwood isn’t connected to interstate pipelines. So anti-LNG opponents hope that by killing one project, they can kill both of them.

Meanwhile, here’s the video featuring Steve Wick.