NORTH COAST
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2015
3A
Union Paci¿ c plans to hike Bakken oil shipments through Gorge
By HILLARY BORRUD
Capital Press
CAPITAL
THE
SALEM — Union Pacif-
ic Railroad plans to increase
shipments of oil from North
Dakota’s Bakken formation
through the Columbia River
Gorge, according to the Ore-
gon Department of Transpor-
tation.
The notice, which ODOT
Rail and Public Transit Divi-
sion Administrator Hal Gard
said the state received on
Thursday, means the railway
could increase shipments
through the Gorge by as much
as 3 million gallons or more
per month.
Gard told the Oregon
Transportation
Commis-
sion during a brie¿ ng ses-
sion Thursday that the state
BUREAU
had just received notice that
morning that Union Paci¿ c
planned to haul up to three
train loads of Bakken oil per
month through the corridor.
Under a 2014 order by the
U.S. Department of Trans-
portation, railways must no-
tify state emergency of¿ cials
of estimated weekly Bakken
oil-by-rail shipments that are
1 million gallons or larger, the
equivalent of approximately
35 tank cars. Railways only
¿ le the reports when the vol-
ume increases or decreases
25 percent from the previous
report.
Some thought
shipments slackened
An Oregon Department of
Transportation spokeswoman
said earlier this year conven-
tion wisdom was that oil-by-
rail shipments through Oregon
slackened this year, although
Burlington Northern Santa
)e Railway and Union Paci¿ c
trains carried 24,199 carloads
of crude oil, natural gas and
natural gasoline on Oregon
rail lines in 2014. That was
a 340 percent increase from
5,491 carloads in 2012, ac-
cording to data from ODOT.
John Johnson, manager of
the transportation agency’s
Rail Safety Section, wrote in
an email that Union Paci¿ c’s
actual weekly estimate ¿ led this
week was that between zero and
one oil-by-rail shipments of at
least 1 million gallons will pass
through the Columbia River
Gorge. The state Fire Marshal’s
Of¿ ce posts the federal notices
on its website, but had not post-
ed the latest Union Paci¿ c no-
tice by Friday afternoon.
Gard said during the Oregon
Transportation
Commission
meeting that the increase in
Union Paci¿ c oil-by-rail ship-
ments will provide an opportu-
nity to put into practice the new
rules the state adopted over the
summer. For example, the state
now requires railways to ¿ le
quarterly reports on hazardous
materials shipments and imme-
diately notify ¿ rst responders
about “incidents involving haz-
ardous materials,” according
to ODOT. The state also hired
more rail inspectors earlier this
year in response to concerns
about the oil shipments.
‘Strict safety practices’
Francisco Castillo, a spokes-
man for Union Paci¿ c’s western
region, said the railway will
move up to three “unit trains,”
or single commodity trains, of
Bakken oil through Oregon,
Washington state and Idaho
starting as early as this week.
Castillo said crude oil account-
ed for approximately 1 percent
of Union Paci¿ c’s freight car
loads in 2014, and roughly 2
percent of the company’s freight
shipments through Oregon were
oil.
Castillo said he could not
provide any information on the
destination of the Bakken oil
shipments or the reason for the
increase.
“We just transport the com-
modity at the request of the cus-
tomer,” Castillo said.
Castillo said the railway
follows “strict safety practices”
and “regardless of what we’re
hauling, safety is our highest
concern.”
The Capital Bureau is a
collaboration between EO Me-
dia Group and Pamplin Media
Group.
Local woman wins OSU adds distilled spirits teacher, researcher
Nurse of the Year
By ERIC MORTENSON
Capital Press
The Daily Astorian
Laura Brown from Co-
lumbia Memorial Hospi-
tal was named the 2015
Nurse of the Year in Wom-
en’s Health for Oregon and
s outhwest Washington by
the March of Dimes during
an award ceremony Friday
in Portland.
Brown is a labor and de-
livery nurse and lactation
consultant with the hospi-
tal’s Family Birthing Center.
She was one of 15 Nurse of
the Year ¿ nalists employed
by the hospital.
“We are truly blessed to
have a nurse of Laura’s cal-
iber among our CMH fam-
ily,” said Trece Gurrad, the
hospital’s vice president of
patient care services.
Brown, who joined the
hospital in 2006 to establish
an inpatient lactation pro-
gram, has been instrumen-
tal in expanding resources
for breastfeeding women
in Clatsop County. She has
grown the program to in-
clude two nurses with phone
consultation coverage every
day of the week and part-
nerships with regional or-
ganizations, including Bras-
2Moms and the Northwest
Mother’s Milk Bank.
Brown makes follow-up
phone calls to check in with
discharged families and
Laura Brown
helps them ¿ nd gently used
nursing bras at the hospital’s
Lactation Program of¿ ce
through the Bras2Moms
program. Lactating women
can also donate breast milk
to the Northwest Mother’s
Milk Bank through the hos-
pital.
Brown was also awarded
the International Lactation
Consultant
Association’s
Care Award for lactation ser-
vices and education in 2011
and 2013.
The hospital’s other
Nurse of the Year ¿ nalists
were Ingrid Boettcher, Col-
leen Fletcher, Kendra Gohl,
Lisa Harris, Jenny Jacques,
Amy Karsten, Shannon
Lackey, Rose Larson, Mi-
haela Lebo, Jamee Meier,
Zachary Melton, Brooke
Roberts, Sarah Salerno, and
Becky White.
Visit us online at
www.DailyAstorian.com
3RD AN N U AL
Music F est
Fundraiser
featuring the
Knappa
Marimba
Band
S ILEN T AU TIO N • R AFFLES & FR EE R EFR ES HM EN TS
SATU RD AY , N O VE M BE R 21 • 5-7PM
Sta r of the Sea • 1411 Gra nd Ave., Astoria
Adm ission : 2 ca n s of food • N o credit ca rds
S PO N S O RED BY CATHO LIC DAUGHTERS O F S T. M ARY
Congratulations
Aman d a
on receiving your
paramedic
certification.
We are proud
of you!
AMBULANCE SERVICE, INC.
CALL US TODAY AT
503-861-5554
IN AN EMERGENCY
CALL 9-1-1
Am a n d a Fa rm er
Pa ra m edic
M ed ix Am bu la n ce
NEWS TALK FOR THE COAST
Providing live a nd loca l new s covera ge every da y
Y ou could see it ton igh t, rea d a bout
it tom orrow or h ea r it live N O W !
Paul Hughes jokes that he
hasn’t caused an accident on
the road yet. So far, so good,
when you’re accustomed to
driving on the left in Great
Britain and have to adjust to
American traffic patterns.
When it comes to mak-
ing whiskey, vodka and
other distilled spirits, how-
ever, Hughes will be happy
to share his way of doing
things.
Hughes, a chemist who
spent the past 10 years
teaching at a university in
Scotland, has been hired as
a researcher and instructor
at Oregon State University’s
Fermentation Center. The
program teaches students
how to make wine, beer and
cheese, and is branching out
into the fast-growing dis-
tilled spirits industry.
According to OSU, dis-
tilled spirits made in Oregon
now account for $69 million
in gross annual sales, near-
ly 13 percent of the state’s
liquor revenue. Oregon has
close to 80 distilleries, up
from 12 eight years ago,
said Christie Scott, spokes-
woman for the Oregon Li-
quor Control Commission.
Hughes said one of his
priorities is to meet with
distillers and establish good
relations with the industry.
Hughes also is setting up
the first distilling course,
which will be offered in Jan-
uary.
“There’s a lot of com-
monality around the fer-
menting techniques used in
brewing, wine-making and
distilled spirits production,”
he said in an OSU news
release. “But distilling re-
quires additional steps. So
there will be a need for ad-
ditional courses about those
techniques.”
Hughes most recently
taught and did research at
Heriot-Watt University in
Edinburgh, Scotland.
At OSU, the fermentation
sciences program is part of
the Food Science and Tech-
nology department.
The state Legislature pro-
vided money for the distilled
spirits position on campus.
Paul Hughes, a chemist
from Scotland, will teach
classes and conduct re-
search on whiskey and oth-
er distilled spirits at OSU’s
fermentation center.
Courtesy of Oregon State University
W A NTED
Alder and Maple Saw Logs & Standing Timber
N orth w es t H a rdw oods • Lon gview , W A
Contact: Steve Axtell • 360-430-0885 or John Anderson • 360-269-2500
Getinspired.
Meetingmedicalspecialists.
Connectwithothers.
AllataNovartisMSEducationLinkEvent.
AHealthcareProfessionalistalking
multiplesclerosis(MS)andtreatment.
______________________________________
November19,2015at6:30PM
Speaker:KirenKresaͲReahl,MD
BakedAlaska
#112thStreet
Astoria,OR97103
______________________________________
Saveaseatforafriend.Accessibletofolksin
wheelchairsorwhoneedassistance.
Lightmealserved.Validatedparking.
Spaceislimited.
PleaseRSVPbycalling1Ͳ866Ͳ682Ͳ7491
CatchaWebeventfromhomeatmsͲwebͲ
events.com
M E D IC ARE
OP EN EN R OLLM EN T
Q u estion s or w an t
to E n roll?
W e ca n h elp!
S teve P u tm a n
Lo ca l In su ra n ce Agen t
O ffice: 503-738-7181
Cell/ Text: 503-440-1076
C a ll now - End of Enrollm ent Dec 7th
DINNER
only
1 5 00
$
Served 11 am to 3 pm
Complete with all the
fixings including coffee
& pumpkin pie.
Seniors 60 & older $ 12 00
Children under 10 $ 5 25
We will close at 3:00 p.m. on
Thanksgiving Day to allow
our employees holiday time
with their families.
We will reopen Friday morning.
Astoria
146 West Bond
503-325-3144
opens • 6 am
Seaside
323 Broadway
503-738-7243
opens • 6 am
Cannon Beach
223 Hemlock
503-436-2851
opens • 7 am
Also available at our
Lincoln City and
Newport locations
