The plant design itself starts from unstable ground
The Corps says the facility would sit on filled ground raised about three feet above existing grade and would rely on about 15,200 steel piles roughly 90 feet long. DEQ's 401 response adds that the project also proposes overlapping soilcrete columns 60 feet deep to strengthen weak soils.
Seismic and ground-stability work is embedded in the basic engineering of the project footprint.
DEQ repeatedly said seismic stability was outside its 401 lane
When commenters raised violent shaking, flare-stack height, weak soils, and levee failure, DEQ's response was not that those issues were irrelevant. It was that seismic stability of the project and of the levee system were not elements of DEQ's 401 Water Quality Certification analysis.
The exchange shows the Port Westward record split across agencies. DEQ left seismic stability to other decision lanes.
The public dock has its own seismic problem to solve
The Port's August 2024 update said Beaver Dock modernization was estimated at about $28 million to meet Oregon's new seismic resiliency standards for liquid fuel terminals under Senate Bill 1567. By May 2025, the Port said the full retrofit cost for the dock had climbed to more than $60 million.
The seismic bill now reaches both the private refinery design and the Port district's public-infrastructure financing problem.
Grant money helps, but it does not erase the public burden
The Port says it secured a $2.7 million Connect Oregon grant for phase one seismic upgrades at Port Westward and would add another $1.2 million from its own capital reserve. That is real funding, but it is still nowhere close to the full dock-retrofit number the Port now says it faces.
This is one reason the Port later started talking about reinstating its property tax levy. Once the seismic cost moved from tens of millions toward more than $60 million, the project's infrastructure burden became harder to hide inside normal Port finances.
The public dock bill changes the politics of private risk
A private industrial project and a public dock retrofit do not become the same thing just because they sit near each other. But once both depend on the same site and the same broader industrial strategy, the public side can start carrying costs that shape the politics around the private side.
The seismic story extends beyond engineering: a project built on weak ground can also drag public infrastructure into a far bigger capital conversation than a routine lease or permit fight would suggest.
Sources & records
Reviewed by Standards Review. Updated April 13, 2026.
- USACE NEXT Renewable Fuels EIS page
Official Corps page describing the facility footprint, final site grade increase, and the use of steel piles and deep-mixing foundations on the project site.
- Oregon DEQ response to comments on the 401 certification
Official state response explaining that seismic stability is outside DEQ's 401 analysis even while summarizing the applicant's proposed seismic design and weak-soil stabilization approach.
- ODOE order granting exemption request
Official Oregon Energy Facility Siting Council order describing the plant scale, major components, and the broader state review path that allowed the project to move forward without a full site certificate.
- Port news: seismic upgrades at Port Westward
Official Port article explaining the Connect Oregon award, the Cascadia-related retrofit mandate, and the Port's claim that Beaver Dock is the only public entity directly affected by the new seismic requirement.
- Port news: property tax and improvement funding
Official Port article saying the full dock retrofit was estimated at more than $60 million and linking that burden to the Port's move to reconsider its property tax levy.
