Union Pacific hazardous materials workers responded to the scene along with contractors packing firefighting foam and a boom for oil spill containment. It was the most deadly oil-train derailment in recent history, but it was far from the only one. Most of the US crude shipped by train comes from North Dakota’s Bakken shale region, which lacks enough pipelines to handle all the local output.
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The Washington side of the Gorge, which sees oil train traffic from BNSF, is not impacted by the Mosier situation.
Officials have been conducting continuous water and air monitoring since plumes of black smoke filled the sky near the scenic Columbia River Gorge.
Mosier’s mayor and fire chief said the derailment and fire in their town could have been a lot worse. “That’s the moment my heart stopped”. The number of railcars carrying crude oil in the USA grew by more than 4,000 percent between 2008 and 2013, with additional increases in 2014, according to some estimates.
Burns said the damaged tank cars appear to be dripping oil.
Train service is back up and running through the Columbia Gorge after Friday’s derailment.
Union Pacific restarted service despite objections from the Mosier City Council. That’s a promising development. Just ask the residents of Mosier. Ron Wyden are among the representatives who released a statement to put a halt on oil transportation.
If you have questions about the opinion section, contact Erik Lukens, editorial and commentary editor, at [email protected] or 503-221-8142. On Friday, U.S. Senator Ron Wyden of OR repeated his call from past year for federal officials to look into whether the newer cars were safe enough.
About a hundred people – a quarter of the town’s population – have been evacuated from their homes since Friday in an area about a quarter mile around the train.
The train, headed to Tacoma, Wash., was loaded at the Dakota Plains terminal in New Town, an FRA spokeswoman said.
The federal government regulates interstate railroad commerce, so cities and towns have no regulatory power over the movement of oil trains.
The Latest on the train derailment in the Columbia River Gorge (all times local): 9 a.m. Union Pacific has resumed train service through the OR city affected by last week’s fiery derailment. Good. The company should continue to hold off on sending mile-long oil trains through Mosier until regulators fully map Friday’s failure and explore routing alternatives.
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Functioning railroads are essential to the region’s and nation’s economic health. But railroad managers must be equally authoritative about their cargoes and practices to limit risk as they are about keeping the trains on time.
