NEWS
POLLUTION UPDATE
BY CAMILLA MORTENSEN
The Oregon Department of Environmental
Quality (DEQ) fined Pacific Recycling, Inc.
$12,374 last week for Clean Water Act
violations at its Eugene metal recycling
facility (located at 3300 Cross Street).
Pacific Recycling has a history of
environmental violations (and associated
fines) at this facility (see goo.gl/kkGA0D),
and this most recent fine is for failure to
monitor its stormwater discharges during
the first half of 2015.
OIL TRAIN CRASHES,
BURNS & LEAKS INTO
THE COLUMBIA RIVER
Doug Quirke/Oregon Clean Water Action Project
LANE COUNTY AREA
SPRAY SCHEDULE
Oregon Department of Transportation is
spraying roadsides. Call 503-986-3010 to
talk with a vegetation management
coordinator or call 1-888-996-8080 for
recent herbicide application information.
Hwys. 36, 101 and 126 were recently
sprayed.
FIRE AND SMOKE FROM
A BURNING OIL TRAIN
RISE HIGH ABOVE THE
COLUMBIA RIVER
Weyerhaeuser Company, 746-2511,
plans to hire Aklin Vegetation Management
LLC, 503-837-0599, to spray Weyerhaeuser
and Weyer/Plum roadsides northwest of
Triangle Lake and on the eastern slopes of
the coast range with aminopyralid,
metsulfuron methyl, glyphosate, imazapyr,
triclopyr Conquer and/or MSO Concentrate
targeting broadleaf, herbaceous and/or
noxious weed vegetation. See ODF
notification 2016-781-06878, call Robin
Biesecker at 541-935-2283 with questions.
Compiled by Gary Hale, Forestland Dwellers: 342-
8332, forestlanddwellers.org
PHOTO: MICHAEL O’LEARY
ack in 2013, EW did a public records request to find out
how much oil was rolling through Eugene on railroad
tanker cars. The request was swiftly denied by Ore-
gon’s Attorney General’s office citing a post 9/11 secu-
rity exemption. After all, if terrorists were to find out
how much explosive Bakken crude was rolling through town,
what would they do with that knowledge?
As the citizens of Mosier found out on Friday, July 3, oil
trains don’t need terrorists to blow them up. Sixteen oil tanker
cars derailed near the small town of Mosier, along the Colum-
bia River near Hood River, and four of them caught fire. A
huge plume of smoke was visible from across the river. Mosier
School was evacuated, as were 60 to 70 homes. Residents had
to boil water and were told not to flush toilets or run water
down drains for several days. A sheen of oil subsequently ap-
peared in the river.
According to the Oregon Department of Environmental
Quality, “Officials estimate that 42,000 gallons of crude es-
caped from four rail cars. Recovery of oil includes 10,000 gal-
lons from the wastewater system, and the remaining 32,000
gallons were either burned off and vaporized, captured by
booms in the Columbia River, or absorbed by soil, with an un-
determined amount remaining in wastewater lines.”
Michael O’Leary of Northwest Steelheaders is one of the
conservationists who has long predicted that the upswing in
coal and oil trains along the Columbia could spell disaster for
the salmon and the river’s water. “I was shocked they did not
have absorbent boom in place on the Columbia for more than
six hours after the derailment,” O’Leary tells EW.
O’Leary arrived at the scene of the derailment within hours
after the accident. He says, “It’s a safe assumption that roll-
ing huge volumes of volatile Bakken oil on accident-prone
railways is going to cause a catastrophe on the Columbia.” He
asks, “How many more communities will be evacuated? How
many more boil water/no flush orders will be issued? How long
until lives are directly lost?”
Union Pacific, which runs the derailed train, confirmed that
it carried Bakken crude. The oil train that crashed and exploded
in Lac-Mégantic Canada, killing 47 people, also carried Bak-
ken crude from the oil fields of North Dakota.
B
“Seeing that rolling fireball taller than the treetops on Friday
was truly shocking,” O’Leary says of the Mosier incident.
Oregon’s Senators Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden, Governor
Kate Brown and Representatives Earl Blumenauer and Suzanne
Bonamici have called for a temporary halt to oil train traffic in
Columbia River Gorge, saying they will “also be pushing for
the Department of Transportation to take a hard look at alterna-
tive routes for oil and hazardous material trains that would put
fewer Oregonians at risk of a dangerous crash in their back-
yards.”
Most oil is carried in DOT 111 tank cars. The train that de-
railed in Mosier had cars that had been upgraded to a higher
CPC 1232 standard, but the think tank Sightline Institute says
those cars are no safer.
Congressman Peter DeFazio issued a statement of his own,
saying, “For years, I have worked to increase rail tank car
safety standards and to help emergency responders prepare for
rail accidents involving crude-by-rail.” He says that last year
“Congress passed legislation that requires railroads to provide
advanced notification and information on high-hazard flamma-
ble trains to states.” The legislation also included provisions he
championed — requiring “thermal-protection for rail tank cars
and require railroads to retrofit, replace and phase out 40,000
additional rail tank cars to prevent catastrophic spills in acci-
dents.”
Union Pacific spokeswoman Raquel Espinoza says prelimi-
nary findings indicate “a fastener that connects the rail tie with
the rail could’ve contributed to the cause, but we are still look-
ing at different pieces of evidence.”
O’Leary says, “According to Union Pacific they inspected
this line very frequently — more than was legally required.
Which just goes to show that despite the railroad’s assurances,
accidents do happen. And the problem with oil train accidents
is that they start at catastrophic and get worse from there.”
It is still unclear how much oil and Bakken crude rolls
through Eugene on tracks running next to Fifth Street Market
and through the Whiteaker. Railroads have to notify states of
shipments over one million gallons of oil, but not shipments
less than that.
• Good Food Easy/Sweetwater Farm will
be opening a farm stand at the Creswell
Bakery at 182 S. 2nd Street in Creswell
beginning 10 am to 2 pm Saturday, June
11, then ongoing each Saturday throughout
the summer. Erica Trappe of Good Food Easy
says, “We are a major supplier of produce to
the bakery, so now customers will be able to
purchase the same fresh local ingredients
they enjoy on the bakery menu.”
• The downtown Eugene Public Library at
10th and Olive is hosting Build Your
Business to Sell for Big Bucks at 6 pm
Thursday, June 9. In a free talk, expert Frank
Plaisted will teach you “how how to
incorporate an exit strategy into business
planning from the start, so you can cash in at
the end.” And at 6 pm June 16, the library is
putting on workshop on Email Marketing:
Standout Subject Lines. Workshop leader
Carol Infranca is “an award-winning print and
broadcast journalist, business and
government marketing and public relations
specialist, and an authorized local expert for
Constant Contact.” More info at 541-682-
5450 or eugene-or.gov/library.
CORRECTIONS/
CLARIFICATIONS
In our massive Summer Guide we listed
the July 17 Habitat for Humanity Blues
Build, music by Curtis Salgado and more
event as free. This benefit July 17 is actually
$25 in advance, $30 day of event. Find out
more at bluesbuild.org or Junction City/
Harrisburg/Monroe Habitat for Humanity at
998-9548.
eugeneweekly.com • June 9, 2016
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