Oil train derails and catches fire near Mosier, Oregon, fulfilling fears of progressive activists

A great many peo­ple in the pro­gres­sive move­ment have been warn­ing that it would only be a mat­ter of time before an insuf­fi­cient­ly-secured coal or oil train derailed here in the Pacif­ic North­west. And now, it’s hap­pened:

A mul­ti-car oil train derail­ment Fri­day in the Colum­bia Riv­er Gorge near Mosier sent up a mas­sive plume of black smoke and stoked long-stand­ing fears about the risks of haul­ing crude oil through one of the Pacif­ic North­west­’s most renowned landmarks.

Eleven cars from a 96-car Union Pacif­ic train derailed west of the small city about 12:20 p.m. At least one car caught on fire and released oil, but no one was injured, said rail­road spokesman Aaron Hunt.

The train orig­i­nat­ed in New Town, North Dako­ta, and was mov­ing Bakken crude to the U.S. Oil & Refin­ery Co. refin­ery in Taco­ma, said com­pa­ny spokes­woman Mar­cia Nielsen.

The acci­dent closed a 27-mile stretch of Inter­state 84 for hours as a pre­cau­tion and caused the evac­u­a­tion of a com­mu­ni­ty school.

The gov­er­nors of Ore­gon and Wash­ing­ton respond­ed quick­ly to the derailment.

“I am grate­ful to local first respon­ders, Haz­Mat teams, and oth­er state agen­cies for doing their best to keep the com­mu­ni­ty of Mosier safe,” said Ore­gon Gov­er­nor Kate Brown in a state­ment sent to NPI. “I am close­ly mon­i­tor­ing the sit­u­a­tion and ready to make every state resource avail­able as need­ed. I ask that trav­el­ers seek alter­nate routes away from this area until fur­ther notice. The Ore­gon Depart­ment of Trans­porta­tion will pro­vide con­tin­u­ous updates on trav­el conditions.”

“Today’s derail­ment of a train car­ry­ing Bakken crude oil in the Colum­bia Riv­er Gorge is yet anoth­er reminder of the risks and con­cerns of crude-by-rail trans­port in our region,” added Wash­ing­ton Gov­er­nor Jay Inslee. “I join Gov. Brown in com­mend­ing the swift response from Oregon’s pub­lic safe­ty and trans­porta­tion officials.”

“There are no reports of oil enter­ing the Colum­bia Riv­er, and for­tu­nate­ly no reports of injuries. Along with the Depart­ment of Ecol­o­gy and the Util­i­ties and Trans­porta­tion Com­mis­sion, I will con­tin­ue to mon­i­tor the sit­u­a­tion and pro­vide sup­port to Gov. Brown in what­ev­er way we can.”

Rail­road con­glom­er­ates like Burling­ton North­ern San­ta Fe (BNSF) and Union Pacif­ic (UP) are back­ing projects that could result in one mil­lion bar­rels of oil a day mov­ing through the region on one hun­dred trains per week, accord­ing to an updat­ed analy­sis by our friends at the Sight­line Insti­tute.

“Mov­ing large quan­ti­ties of oil by rail would rep­re­sent a major change for the Northwest’s ener­gy econ­o­my, and the plans now in devel­op­ment put the region’s com­mu­ni­ties at risk,” the report notes.

State Sen­a­tor Reuven Car­lyle (D‑36th Dis­trict: Queen Anne, Mag­no­lia, Bal­lard) said in a state­ment that it’s time for urgent action to ensure the safe­ty of Pacif­ic North­west com­mu­ni­ties from explo­sive fos­sil fuel-laden freight trains.

He writes:

Just two years fol­low­ing the wake up call derail­ment under the Mag­no­lia Bridge in Seat­tle — among the most dense neigh­bor­hoods in our state — we see mas­sive flames on the edge of the mighty Colum­bia while respon­ders pre­pare for oil to spill into the water.

Dozens of fed­er­al laws with ele­gant sound­ing envi­ron­men­tal names seem tooth­less at the very moment we need to more effec­tive­ly pro­tect the pub­lic against unre­strict­ed oil by rail traffic.

It is time for action and resolve as a state in the midst of fed­er­al impo­tence. We should imme­di­ate­ly deny per­mits to all pro­posed oil-by-rail facil­i­ties in Wash­ing­ton (Van­cou­ver, Hoquiam, Anacortes).

We should demand that exist­ing oil-by-rail indus­try car­ry insur­ance pro­por­tion­al to the risk they are deliv­er­ing to our communities.

The fed­er­al gov­ern­ment should issue a well craft­ed mora­to­ri­um on the move­ments of all oil trains until they can be oper­at­ed in a rea­son­ably safe man­ner. We can act respon­si­bly and imme­di­ate­ly if we sim­ply open our eyes to the grip of the sta­tus quo. We as 7 mil­lion peo­ple in our pris­tine state are not help­less to act against a face­less Wash­ing­ton, D.C. bureau­cra­cy. We can love trains and the role they play in our econ­o­my and be fierce­ly com­mit­ted to envi­ron­men­tal pub­lic safe­ty. It’s a false choice to pre­tend we must choose one over the other.

We agree. As for­mer Nation­al Trans­porta­tion Safe­ty Board (NTSB) Chair Deb­o­rah Hers­man said in 2014, “The large-scale ship­ments of crude oil by rail sim­ply didn’t exist 10 years ago, and our safe­ty reg­u­la­tions need to catch up with this new real­i­ty.” NTSB has pushed for fed­er­al offi­cials to make basic moves to improve the safe­ty of trains haul­ing haz­ardous car­go, but there has been lit­tle follow-up.

Mean­while, “acci­dents” con­tin­ue to occur. Today’s derail­ment near Mosier may not have been as destruc­tive as those in Lac-Megan­tic, Que­bec, Lynch­burg, Vir­ginia, or Goga­ma, Ontario, but it should serve as anoth­er wake-up call for all of us here in the Pacif­ic North­west that we are not immune to the danger.

NPI con­curs that a mora­to­ri­um should be put into place imme­di­ate­ly on oil trains by the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment to ensure that no com­mu­ni­ty in the Pacif­ic North­west has to be torn apart like Lac-Megan­tic was. BNSF and UP are reck­less­ly endan­ger­ing lives and prop­er­ty by con­tin­u­ing to trans­port Bakken crude and oth­er volatile fos­sil fuels using their right-of-way in brit­tle, weak containers.

Only the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment has the juris­dic­tion to step in and pro­tect the peo­ple of this coun­try and this region from their temerity.

The Oba­ma admin­is­tra­tion needs to act, and swift­ly. Gov­er­nors Inslee and Brown would be wise to join Sen­a­tor Car­lyle in call­ing for a mora­to­ri­um with­out delay.