That’s below the requirement of 13.7 psi set by the North Dakota Department of Mineral Resources a year ago to reduce the volatility of Bakken crude in response to fiery oil train derailments in the USA and Canada. Just three weeks before the UP derailment, approximately 150 environmental activists blockaded a BNSF track leading to Shell and Tesoro oil refineries near Anacortes, Wash.
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An oil-train derailment and fire has damaged essential city services in a small OR town, authorities said Sunday.
Union Pacific said it would not run crude oil through the Gorge “anytime soon”, according to spokesman Justin Jacobs.
Union Pacific Railroad returned to using the tracks where a crude-oil train derailed late last week in Mosier, Ore., near the Columbia River Gorge.
Raquel Espinoza, a spokeswoman with Union Pacific, said the railroad has been in direct communication with residents in Mosier. The company resumed running trains Sunday evening. Oil leaked into a sewer main and flowed downhill to the vault, which discharges treated water into the Columbia River. On the morning of June 4, an oil sheen was spotted on the nearby Columbia River.
The railroad is now operating at a reduced speed of 10 miles per hour through Mosier while crews work to drain and clear the 16 tanker cars that derailed June 3, resulting in a spill and explosion. Union Pacific had completed a more detailed and technical inspection of this section of track at the end of April and found no problems. The new CPC 1232 tank cars have thicker shells, bulkhead and valve protection but have been involved in recent derailments and fires.
As Mosier Fire Chief Jim Appleton told the editorial board of The Oregonian/OregonLive on Tuesday, doom, for a moment, seemed possible: “My horror upon arriving at the scene was not so much the fire but the long line of rail cars that… could have ignited, a line that extended all the way through town and out of sight….”
“My attention was focused on the incident that didn’t happen”, Appleton said. How can the area be safe for train traffic, she asked, if it’s not for residents?
Burns said the town is traumatized.
“We feel like we’re being railroaded”, she said.
“We feel it’s still unsafe for trains of any kind to come through the area when these oil bombs are sitting on our front steps”, Burns said. “And we will call on Governor Brown, Governor Inslee, and federal leaders to deny proposed oil train terminals in the Pacific Northwest, proposals that would dramatically increase unsafe oil trains through our region”.
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The worst was a 2013 derailment that killed 47 people in Lac-Megantic, Quebec. Damage from that accident has been estimated at $1.2 billion or higher.
