News
Page 12
Street Roots • Dec. 21-27, 2018
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P H O T O B Y S T EPH EN Q U IR K E
Commissioners fo r the Port o f St. Helens (left to right) Patrick Trapp, M ike Avent, Chris Iverson, Larry Erickson and Robert Keyser discuss the Global Partners contract, Dec. 12.
O IL , f r o m p a g e 7
the plan. During that two week delay, port
commissioners said they received about 500
emails, most of them against loosening API
gravity restrictions.
Many uncertainties resulting from such a
short public process were on full display at
thé Dec. 12 hearing.
Paul Peterson, Superintendent of the
Scappoose School District, asked
commissioners if proposed API changes
would make students along the railroad
either more or less safe. Peterson repeated
the question four times before
commissioner Patrick Trapp replied that the
number of variables involved made it “unfair
to give you an answer one way or another.”
“Those of you wondering whether this
will be safer for the school, the answer is
no. It will not be safer for the school if ÿou
move oil for Global Partners,” countered
Dan Serres of Columbia Riverkeeper. “We
urge you to retain the current limitations on
the API standard. Both because of the
drinking water issues ... but also as a basic
safety issue. People in the Northwest are at
risk with every one of these trains that
passes through our region. We’re playing
Russian roulette with oil trains, and we’re
asking you not to put more bullets in that
gun.”
Among those urging the Port to postpone
their vote was Vancouver resident Don
Steinke, who asked the commission to reject
any proposal that would lead to additional oil
trains traveling through Vancouver. Steinke
also highlighted the difference between the
public process in St. Helens and Vancouver.
“We did 4.5 years of an environmental study
for that oil terminal up there. How many
years have you spent writing an
environmental study?”
T l^ -fin al l a n g a a g o - o f ^ h e - 6 appro ved-
resolution was not made available to the
public until it was posted to the port website
on Dec. 14, two days after their vote. At the
hearing, many people lacking access to that
final resolution directed their comments not
just at API changes, but also to a proposal,
published in The Columbian and The Daily
News, that would have expanded the
permitted length of trains from 1 mile to 1.5
miles. Port officials now say that changing
the length of trains was never under
consideration and do not know the source of
this information.
What’s next
Last June the state’s Public Utilities
Commission approved the sale of additional
storage tanks to Global Partners which
would increase its total storage capacity to
58 million gallons - or 1.38 million barrels
of oil. By comparison Vancouver Energy,
which would have been thé country’s largest
oil-by-rail facility, had a planned storage
capacity of 2.25 million barrels.
The Columbia Pacific Bio-Refinery at Port
Westward came equipped with two 3.8
million gallon storage tanks - equivalent to
180,000 barrels of oil. According to Paula
Miranda, Deputy Executive Director of the
Port of St. Helens, the sale of these
additional storage tanks has not yet been
finalized, as the company is seeking new
customers to make the deal viable, Miranda
says expanding the range of oils moved
through the facility may help make the tank
sale more attractive.
According to Miranda, the facility is
currently restricted to receiving 24-unit
trains per month, and is allowed to ship 38
trains per month ifcertain rail
improvements are completed. There are no
restrictions tom aritim e shipments of oil or
methanol from the port, and according to
Miranda.
In March 2014, the Oregon Department
of Environmental Quality fined Global
Partners $102,292 for shipping nearly six
times its permitted quantity of oil - moving
297 million gallons
between Dec. 2012
and Nov. 2013. It
was only permitted
to move 50 million
gallons annually. In
August of that year,
the Oregon DEQ
approved a permit
allowing Global to
move 1.8 billion
gallons of oil every
year - enough to fill
50 trains per month.
of Environmental Quality. These provisions
are supported by the Hood River City
Council, Mosier City Council, and the Hood
River County Board of Commissioners.
According to Dan Serres of Columbia
Riverkeeper, what happens next at Port'
Westward will
largely depend on
whether state
leaders- are willing
to address oil train
safety in 2019.
“Oregon is going to
continue to be
targeted for this
type of traffic - oil
train traffic - until
or unless someone
in state
government stands
up to this industry,”
New legislation
says Serres.
i In the aftermath
of the 2016 oil train
And the
derailment in
Dan Serres immediate
Mosier, two pieces
Cotufrnbja Riverkeeper question, says
of legislation were
Serres, is whether
proposed in the
the
DEQ decides to
Oregon State
take a hard look at risks from the facility -
Legislature to address oil train safety -
something that has not yet happened since
House Bill 2131, sponsored by Rep. Barbara
Smith Warner of Portland, and Senate Bill 7,
it began moving oil in 2012. “This is a
sponsored by Sen. Peter Courtney. Both
problem, to be honest, that Oregon doesn’t
bills failed in 2017, and are expected to be
have more of a process for evaluating
reconsidered in the 2019 legislative session.
projects like this when they make big
HB 2131 would have required railroads to
changes. The recipe for getting a successful
submit emergency response and
oil terminal going appears to be: propose
contingency plans related to hazardous
materials to state regulators - including the
and build it as something else, and then
state Fire Marshal and Oregon Department
switch i t “
K
People in the
Northwest are at risk with
every one of these trains
that passes through our
■region, We’re k playing
playing
Russian roulette.with
oi
3tte with oil
trains, and we’re
'e’re asking
you not to put
jt more
bullets in that t gun.
gun,”