BLAINE, Wash. -- As Bellingham residents discuss the possibility of more coal train traffic, the city may also see an increase in trains carrying crude oil to the BP Cherry Point Refinery.

Whatcom County Planning Director Sam Ryan says she met briefly with officials from the BP Cherry Point Refinery to discuss rail upgrades on refinery property that would allow them to take in rail cars filled with crude oil from Montana and North Dakota.

She says they're constantly doing upgrades at the refinery, and officials don't want this upgrade to be associated with the Gateway Pacific Terminal Project.



Ryan says the county will only be involved in the environmental reviews of the BP rail upgrade.

She says the impact on rail traffic would be minor; the project would bring at most one more train through the area each day.

The impact would be much less than the proposed Gateway Pacific Terminal, which if approved, would be built in the same area at Cherry Point.