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Wednesday, June 15, 2016 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
State advances plan to test for lead
Railroad says broken
bolt caused derailment
By Keith Ridler
Associated Press
At least one broken bolt
holding the rail in place
caused the fiery derailment
of a Union Pacific train mov-
ing volatile crude oil through
the Columbia River Gorge on
the Oregon-Washington bor-
der, railroad officials say.
Union Pacific spokesman
Justin Jacobs said Saturday
that the company filed a
report Friday with the Federal
Railroad Administration cit-
ing one or more broken bolts
as the cause of the June 3
derailment.
“We are unaware of any
time when this has happened
in the past,” Jacobs said.
“This is an unusual failure.”
He said there’s no evi-
dence of malevolent activ-
ity by anyone to damage the
tracks.
“There’s nothing to indi-
cate that would be the case,”
he said.
The type of bolt that
broke is unique in that it’s
only used on curved sections
of track, Jacobs said. He
noted the train was going 26
mph in a 30 mph zone so it’s
not clear why the bolt failed.
As a result, he said, the com-
pany is now in the process
of checking similar bolts in
curved sections of its 32,000
miles of track in 23 states.
No one was injured in the
derailment, but the tiny town
of Mosier, Oregon, was evac-
uated after four cars caught
fire. Of the 96 cars all loaded
with crude oil, more than a
dozen derailed.
Mosier Fire Chief Jim
Appleton, who fought the
blaze after the derailment,
said he appreciated Union
Pacific’s maintenance and
safety procedures but the risk
of one broken bolt resulting
in such a disaster or poten-
tially worse disasters means
regulators should not allow
shipments of crude oil to
travel by train through the
area.
“We have to accept that
there are going to be failures
in the rail system,” he said.
“But we have to recognize
that there are some risks that
are unacceptable.”
Officials have said 42,000
gallons of crude oil were
released in the derailment
of the unit crude oil train,
called such because it hauled
only one type of commod-
ity. About 10,000 gallons
were recovered in wastewa-
ter systems, while the rest
was burned off, captured
by booms or absorbed into
soil.
Jacobs said bolts in that
section of track, following
the derailment, have been
replaced with heavier-duty
bolts.
He also said inspections
have been increased in the
Columbia River Gorge from
once every 18 months to four
times a year. He said the bro-
ken bolt possibly escaped
detection because the break
occurred out of sight. He
said the testing going on now
on the company’s network of
tracks is much more labor-
intensive and will detect bro-
ken bolts.
Union Pacific has tem-
porarily halted sending unit
crude oil trains through the
area, and it’s not clear when
they will resume.
“We will notify the com-
munity before we start run-
ning unit crude oil trains
through the gorge,” Jacobs
said.
PORTLAND (AP) —
Oregon health and education
officials said June 8, they
will team up with school
districts and licensed child
care programs statewide to
facilitate testing for lead in
school drinking water over
the summer.
The plan responds to a
directive from Gov. Kate
Brown in April and comes on
the heels of belated disclo-
sures about lead in the drink-
ing water of some Portland
Public Schools.
In March, the district
arranged to test for lead at
two schools at the request
of parents who were con-
cerned about the unfold-
ing public health crisis in
Flint, Michigan. Those tests
revealed elevated levels of
lead in 14 of 92 water sources
at the schools, includ-
ing a handful of drinking
fountains, but parents were
not told for weeks.
That disclosure has moti-
vated other school districts
around the state to test their
water for lead, which is a
neurotoxin.
The Oregon Department
of Education, the Oregon
Health Authority and the
state’s Early Learning
Division will provide techni-
cal support and information
for the state’s 197 school dis-
tricts and recommend a list
of state-certified labs to test
the water.
The plan also calls for
those labs to report results to
the Oregon Health Authority,
which will build a data-
base for public use this fall,
said Robb Cowie, an OHA
spokesman.
The announcement is a
recommendation only, how-
ever, and the state can’t
require school districts to
test.
Currently, districts that
have their own water supply
are monitored by the state
health officials for lead in the
water.
But the majority of
schools receive water from
municipal systems. These
schools aren’t monitored for
lead in the water beyond the
testing done by the municipal
network.
That can be a problem
because many older schools
have pipes that can leach
lead into the water at the site.
“There’s growing con-
cerns in the school dis-
tricts and we just wanted
to do what we could to
get information out on
best practices,” said Amy
Wojcicki, spokeswoman for
the Oregon Department of
Education.
Seniors staying active...
photo provided
Sisters seniors got into the rodeo spirit at their Tuesday luncheon last week, all gussied up Western-style
and doing some two-steppin’ at a dance.
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