Port of Tacoma

Twenty-five years ago, the Olympic Pipeline ruptured in Bellingham, Washington, killing three people. In the aftermath, Washington state created its Citizens' Committee on Pipeline Safety, meant to advise on regulation to keep communities around pipelines safer.The committee still functions today, but Amanda McKay, who serves on it, said that increased interest and awareness of pipeline safety issues in the early 2000s has now fallen. Groups that advocate for pipeline safety and regulations, like her’s, want to change that.

Since early Monday morning, hundreds of protestors have been blocking the three road entrances into the Port of Tacoma in an attempt to stop workers from loading a United States military supply vessel, the Cape Orlando, with weapons and military equipment.

A new project to deepen the Blair Waterway at the Port of Tacoma will allow extra-large container ships to easily travel through the port.Last week, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the National Defense Authorization Act, which, in part, authorized the project to deepen Blair waterway in the Port of Tacoma.

An unprecedented number of ships have canceled their calls to the ports of Seattle and Tacoma. So far this year, there have been 32 canceled international sailings since January 1. That has created the shortage of shipping containers at those Northwest ports.

Right now, all sorts of products aren’t reaching the U.S. because of the coronavirus outbreak that originated in Wuhan, China. Reciprocally, many U.S. agricultural and forestry products aren’t shipping back into China and other Pacific Rim countries. Global trade watchers say backed-up trade is building up on both sides of the Pacific Ocean.