A fuel terminal in Northwest Portland cleared a hurdle with the city’s permitting staff Monday, after weeks of rallies at City Hall calling on councilors to halt its operations.

The news came a few days after two Portland councilors called for investigations into Zenith Energy.

Zenith stores and moves renewable and fossil fuels between railcars, ships and pipelines at its terminal on the Willamette River. The company needs an air quality permit from the state Department of Environmental Quality to continue operating.

Before getting that permit, Zenith first needed Portland to issue what’s called a land use compatibility statement, or LUCS, that says the company’s operations align with city land use rules.

With that statement now in hand, Zenith can move forward with the state’s air quality permit review.

“We appreciate the city’s fair consideration of a technical fix to our existing land use approval,” Zenith Energy chief commercial officer Grady Reamer said in a statement.

The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality will make a decision in the coming weeks, according to department staff.

Portland’s permitting department needed to issue that statement regardless of public opinion, since Zenith’s application demonstrated it was in line with city regulations, staff said.

“The City of Portland has a duty to uphold its land use processes, with good faith and due process for all parties involved,” city Administrator Michael Jordan wrote in a statement. “We have heard from Portlanders and take their concerns about our environment and safety seriously.”

Zenith has drawn fierce opposition over the years from many environmental groups and Portlanders, who criticized the company for its history of violating multiple local regulations.

In a statement emailed to advocacy group Sunrise PDX on Monday, Mayor Keith Wilson said he supported councilors' calls for reviewing Zenith’s franchise agreement with the city.

He then added that the LUCS process is “a narrowly defined procedural step.”

“I am not in a position to impede this administrative determination,” he wrote.

The backlash to Monday’s decision was swift.

“Our community had hope in this new city administration, but already we’ve been let down,” Dineen Crowe, campaign manager for the environmental nonprofit 350PDX, said in a press release.

Zenith’s terminal is located in the city’s critical energy infrastructure hub on the Willamette River — a 6-mile concentration of fuel storage plants and other industrial facilities. The area is expected to release massive plumes of toxic chemicals in the event of a 9.0 magnitude Cascadia earthquake, which could happen in the next few decades.

The City Council is scheduled to discuss the industrial hub at a March 17 work session.

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2025/02/03/zenith-energy-land-use-compatibility-statement/