Union Pacific began running trains Sunday past the site of an oil train derailment in the Columbia River Gorge.
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The FRA had said earlier Saturday that there were no reports of oil on the river from the train, which originated in Eastport, Idaho, and was carrying crude from North Dakota to Tacoma, Washington.
“We don’t have any scheduled, but on top of that we will not run new crude oil trains through the gorge until after this incident has been fully investigated and we inform the community”, Jacobs said.
It was encouraging to read in Saturday’s newspaper that Union Pacific plans to spend $34.6 million on OR railroad lines.
“Restarting trains before the high-risk carnage of their last accident is even cleared from the tracks is telling Mosier they are going to play a second round of Russian roulette without our town”, said Mayor Alrene Burns in a statement.
The accident occurred alongside Oregon’s scenic Columbia River gorge and the Environmental Protection Agency, Coast Guard and FRA officials were monitoring the site.
No injuries have been reported.
As for Mosier, all evacuees have been allowed to return home, but their ordeal is far from over.
A small quantity of oil leaked into the Columbia River, but has been contained by booms.
A new accident involving oil hauled by rail in OR is fueling calls for a moratorium on the shipping method in the Pacific Northwest.
While rail shipments have dipped from more than 1 million barrels per day in 2014 as a result of the lengthy slump in oil prices, the first such crash in a year will likely reignite the debate over safety concerns surrounding transporting crude by rail.
“It shines a light on how reckless approving the oil terminal would be”, said Brett VandenHeuvel, executive director of the Columbia Riverkeeper.
That’s little satisfaction in tiny Mosier, however, whose fire-fighting capacity is that of a squirt gun before an oil-fed fireball amid unignited oil cars strewn about like so many matchsticks.
The plunge in global oil prices also has put pressure on the industry because using rail for transportation made sense for refiners when US -produced crude was significantly cheaper than imported.
Mosier city officials quickly passed an emergency motion calling on Union Pacific to remove all oil from the damaged cars before the line was reopened, but Union Pacific just pushed the disabled cars to the side of the track and restarted operations.
Mayor Arlene Burns said the people of Mosier were “incredibly lucky”.
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“My attention was focused on the incident that didn’t happen”, Appleton said.
