As oil train traffic increases through Seattle with crude oil coursing to West Coast refineries from the Bakkan oil fields, a recurring question has been: Are they safe?
That debate is sure to reemerge with new vigor with news, still developing, that a train carrying crude oil has crashed in the Columbia River Gorge and caught fire.
Columbia River Keepers sent this note to press:
A unit train carrying crude oil derailed near Mosier, Oregon this afternoon. Mosier schools have been evacuated. A large black plume of smoke is filling the sky, and there are visible flames.
The train was carrying crude oil on the Union Pacific rail line through the town of Mosier. The placards on the train say 1267 – signifying that the trains were carrying crude oil.
Brett VandenHeuvel, Executive Director of Columbia Riverkeeper, observed the fire. “This a terrible situation. There is a large oil train fire in Mosier, in the Columbia River Gorge. We urge everyone to avoid the area to respect the work of the first responders,” he said.
Mosier is about 70 miles east of Portland.
According to the Seattle Times, the train belongs to Union Pacific.
A good deal of the protest over oil trains in the Pacific Northwest can be traced back to concerns over the carbon the oil will release when its burned. But while all carbon infrastructure is prone to draw protest in the region, the risk of explosions have drawn extra scrutiny to oil trains.
Eric de Place, policy director of the Sightline Institute, put it this way to Casey Jaywork last year: “Oil trains are fundamentally, structurally, by their nature, unsafe. These things are bombs. We don’t know when they’re gonna go off, but they’re gonna go off. And if they happen in an urban area, get the body bags ready.”
Yikes.
Oil train traffic has increased in the region as more oil arrives from North Dakota and less arrives from Alaska. Regulators have been scrambling to implement new rules in Washington to increase safety of the trains.
Today’s crash is sure add even more urgency to those efforts.
Photo courtesy of Columbia Riverkeepers
