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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (May 13, 2015)
Wednesday, May 13, 2015 OFF PAGE ONE DISPATCH: County’s cost for operating Oil industry challenges rules the center in 2014-15 is $2.023 million meant to stop train explosions Page 8A East Oregonian pay for emergency calls, Lieuallen said, and not for administrations did not want the multitude of other duties to address the situation. dispatchers handle, including Hermiston’s consolidation dog complaints, welfare of its dispatch center with FKHFNV RU DVVLVWLQJ RI¿FHUV the county in 2014 brought a GXULQJDWUDI¿FVWRS The county received new light to the issue. Rowan said Hermiston and Pend- $6,976 from the state for Pilot leton, which also contracts 5RFN¶V IRU WKLV ¿VFDO ZLWK WKH VKHULII¶V RI¿FH IRU year, she said, about $200 communications services, less than in 2001. But the want other users to pay their number of calls for service has increased. She said cell- fair share. Lieuallen said Pendleton phones are the reason. Oregon’s 9-1-1 tax is 75 is on the hook to county for $285,000 and Hermiston cents per month for a landline about $296,000. The county phone and 75 cents per month handles 9-1-1 and other for a cellphone account, dispatch calls for about but not per cellphone. And 30 other agencies as well. prepaid phones do not pay Umatilla County’s cost for the tax at all, though a new operating the dispatch center state law will rectify that in 2014-15 is $2.023 million, starting in October. Lieuallen said she calcu- and more than $1.1 million of that came from the coun- lates the communications bills using population ty’s general fund. Lieuallen and Rowan last ¿JXUHV IURP 3RUWODQG 6WDWH week addressed questions University. The formula on the matter from the Pilot excludes Umatilla Tribal Rock City Council. She said Police, Milton-Freewater and changes in the law regarding Oregon State Police, which the use of 9-1-1 funds is also have their own call centers. Based on her math, she said, part of the problem. Before 2012, Oregon Pilot Rock makes up 2.11 cities handed over their percent of the population 9-1-1 tax revenue to the so its dispatch costs should appropriate public-safety come to $24,801. But she answering point — or PSAP stressed that is not how much — the dispatch center that WKHVKHULII¶VRI¿FHLVVHHNLQJ handles calls for a region. this year. Pendleton Police Chief Not all cities did that, she said, so starting in 2012 the Stuart Roberts said the 2UHJRQ2I¿FHRI(PHUJHQF\ VKHULII¶V RI¿FH VWLOO QHHGV WR Management collected the do a better job explaining to tax from cities and sent its partners how it arrives at the funds to the dispatch the costs. And he and other centers. The 9-1-1 tax police leaders are asking revenues, though, can only if it may be time to for the Continued from 1A communications center to function on its own, and not under the umbrella of the VKHULII¶VRI¿FH Roberts said Umatilla County’s dispatch services are an anomaly in Oregon, where most centers are stand- alone entities that receive revenue as a taxing district, have a board of directors and a manager. Even if that idea is only talk, the more pressing issue is about repre- sentation. Currently agencies are paying into the system but have no say in how that system operates. Hermiston Police Chief Jason Edmiston is on the same page as Roberts. “Everybody paying needs to have input into the structure of what the dispatch center looks like,” he said. Edmiston also advocated for police agencies to pay using a population formula ZKLOH ¿UH DQG DPEXODQFH ought to pay per call. Rowan told Pilot Rock city leaders it is easy to see where Hermiston and Pend- leton are coming from: “The question they are asking is if you are charging us, why aren’t you charging them?” he said. Rowan said the answer is in easing the small cities into their full bill, with the goal of everyone contributing what they should. Just how long that could take, though, no one is saying. ——— Contact Phil Wright at pwright@eastoregonian.com or 541-966-0833. GAS: Estimates $3.2 million for construction of new gas line Continued from 1A Smith said the issue has already prevented a potential developer from bringing 250 jobs to the area because the natural gas it needed to heat its warehouse wasn’t available. The natural gas problem also caused DuPont Pioneer to halt a planned multi- million-dollar expansion in Hermiston last year, which is what started the city on the path to getting into the natural gas business. Origi- nally the company was told by Cascade Natural Gas that the infrastructure needed to serve the expansion would cost $450,000, causing the company to select Hermiston for its expansion, but later Cascade Natural Gas said there had been a mathemat- ical error and the upgrade would actually cost $2.3 million. If the city and developers had to bear the whole cost of the construction but Cascade Natural Gas would end up owning the infrastructure, the city reasoned, then why not create a municipal utility so the city would have owner- ship of the pipeline and could UHDSDOORIWKHSUR¿WVIURPLW" Right now the city has a rough estimate of $3.2 million for construction of the transmission line, but hiring an engineer as approved by the city council Monday will allow the council to put WRJHWKHUDEHWWHUFRVWEHQH¿W analysis for the creation of the utility. Smith said city staff have been looking into grants and other state funding options. When the city formed Herm- iston Energy Services, its municipal electric utility, it paid for the initial formation with bonds that are being paid off using the revenue from customers’ electricity bills. He said something similar would likely take place with the natural gas utility. Cascade Natural Gas spokesman Mark Hanson VDLGWKHFRPSDQ\GLGQRW¿OH an appeal to the circuit court decision allowing Hermiston to proceed on the advice of its legal council, and moving forward it will “continue to focus on providing safe and reliable service to our natural gas customers in Hermiston.” ——— Contact Jade McDowell at jmcdowell@eastorego- nian.com or 541-564-4536. RSVP: ‘We’ve been operating on a wing and a prayer’ Continued from 1A McMurphy, who directs the community action program’s Area Agency on Aging, said CAPECO can’t afford the matching require- ment. “We take the money from our transportation program to pay the match to RSVP,” she said. CAPECO drivers use a ÀHHWRIVL[YHKLFOHVWRWUDQV- port people to medical and business appointments in a program called Dial-A-Ride. Virtually all the revenue, she said, goes to pay the RSVP match, with little left over to maintain aging vehicles. “We’ve seen a ripple HIIHFW ZLWK RXU ÀHHW´ McMurphy said. “We’ve been operating on a wing and a prayer.” The move affects two paid RSVP workers. RSVP employee Shirley Harrison will lose her RSVP job, but continue her auditing and money managing duties at CAPECO. Area RSVP Director Karen Hanson has been laid off. “Karen did a fantastic job for us,” McMurphy said. The CAPECO Board voted to disconnect with RSVP on April 24. Volun- teers and stations (places where the volunteers serve) recently received letters explaining the change. McMurphy said volun- teers may continue to serve in the same roles as always. However, CAPECO will no longer screen the volunteers and RSVP supplemental insurance will no longer cover volunteers when they’re working. Drivers who deliver Meals on Wheels or transport clients to appointments will continue to receive mileage reimbursement. McMurphy said money was not the entire reason for severing ties with RSVP. The Corporation for National & Community Service, the federal organization which funds RSVP programs, “has been getting much more prescriptive.” The list of volunteer jobs LV PRUH QDUURZO\ GH¿QHG for example food service is no longer allowed as part of the program. Recently, the national organization ruled that volunteers should not lead prayers before meals. “That was a tough message to deliver,” McMurphy said. “It made a lot of our volunteers angry.” Since the announcement, remaining RSVP employee 6KLUOH\ +DUULVRQ ¿HOGHG D ÀXUU\ RI FDOOV IURP YROXQ- teers and those who use the volunteers’ services. “They were nervous about what it all means, asking, ‘Now that RSVP is going away, how are we going to volunteer?’” McMurphy said. “Once things were explained, people were much better with it.” ——— Contact Kathy Aney at kaney@eastoregonian.com or call 541-966-0810. Associated Press BILLINGS, Mont. — The U.S. oil industry has ¿OHGDFRXUWFKDOOHQJHWRQHZ rules aimed at reducing the risk of catastrophic accidents involving crude moved by UDLOIROORZLQJDVWULQJRI¿HU\ derailments in recent years. The American Petroleum Institute’s petition to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., would set aside a requirement for improvements to railroad tank cars that are known to fail during accidents. API spokesman Brian Straessle said the politically LQÀXHQWLDO WUDGH JURXS supports better tank cars, but companies need more time to get them on the tracks. ³:H GH¿QLWHO\ VXSSRUW XSJUDGHV WR WKH ÀHHW´ Straessle said. “It’s a matter of timing.” At least 24 oil trains have EHHQLQYROYHGLQPDMRU¿UHV or derailments during the past decade in the U.S. and Canada, including a 2013 accident in Quebec that killed 47 people. The latest derail- ment came last week, when a train carrying crude from the Bakken region derailed and FDXJKW ¿UH LQ FHQWUDO 1RUWK Dakota, forcing the evacua- tion of a small town. The Department of Transportation rules unveiled May 1 call for an estimated 43,000 cars that primarily haul crude to be phased RXW RU UHWUR¿WWHG E\ Tom Stromme/The Bismarck Tribune via AP, File A line of oil tanker cars sit on the BNSF railroad tracks May 6 in Harvey, N.D. The U.S. oil industry is challenging new rules aimed at reducing the risk of catastrophic accidents involving crude moved by rail. Similar improvements to cars primarily carrying ethanol must be completed by 2023. Transportation Depart- ment spokeswoman Suzi Emmerling said the rules will make crude transportation safer. “We believe the rule will stand up to challenge in court and remain hopeful that industries impacted by these changes will accept their safety obligations and follow the new regulations,” she said. 7KH SHWLWLRQ ¿OHG ODWH Monday also asks the court to set aside a requirement for advanced braking systems on fuel-hauling trains. The oil industry contends the brakes are unproven and would be too costly. The braking rule has drawn similar objections from the rail industry, which is considering its own legal challenge to the rule, said Ed Greenberg, spokesman for Association of American Railroads. Railroads also have concerns about tank cars, but they are the opposite of the oil industry’s worries. Railroads want the cars — many of which are owned by oil companies — to be ¿WWHGZLWK³WKHUPDOEODQNHWV´ that wrap around the tank to SUHYHQW ¿UHV IURP VSUHDGLQJ during a derailment. Another challenge to the rules could come from environmental groups and safety advocates who say the deadlines set by the Trans- portation Department are not fast enough. Also of concern is a provi- sion exempting trains with fewer than 35 tank cars from the tougher construction requirement. “You could have 34 crude oil cars on a train and none of them would have to meet the news standards,” Boyles said. Drilling to resume near BP’s ill-fated blowout NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Deep-water drilling is set to resume near the site of the catastrophic BP PLC well blowout that killed 11 workers and caused the nation’s largest offshore oil VSLOO ¿YH \HDUV DJR RII WKH coast of Louisiana. A Louisiana-based oil company, LLOG Explora- tion Offshore LLC, plans to drill into the Macondo reservoir, according to federal records reviewed by The Associated Press. +DUSHU¶V 0DJD]LQH ¿UVW reported the drilling plans late Tuesday. LLOG’s permit to drill a new well near BP’s site was approved April 13 by the Bureau of Safety and Envi- ronmental Enforcement, an agency overseeing offshore oil and gas drilling opera- tions. The company’s explo- ration plan was approved last October following an environmental review by a sister agency, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. The company, a SULYDWHO\ RZQHG ¿UP EDVHG in Covington, Louisiana, will be looking to extract oil and gas deep under the *XOI RI 0H[LFR¶V VHDÀRRU an undertaking that proved catastrophic for BP. “Our commitment is to not allow such an event to occur again,” said Rick Fowler, the vice president for deep-water projects at LLOG. “LLOG staff keeps the memory of what happened ... fresh in our minds throughout our oper- ations, both planning and execution.” On April 20, 2010, a drilling rig owned by Trans- ocean Ltd. and hired by BP to GULOO LQWR WKH 0DFRQGR ¿HOG experienced a series of prob- lems that led to a massive blowout. Investigators later faulted BP and its contractors for fatal missteps. The drilling rig, in waters about 45 miles off the Loui- siana coast, was engulfed in ÀDPHV(OHYHQZRUNHUVZHUH killed, 17 were seriously injured and more than 100 had to be evacuated. BP, its contractors and federal regulators struggled to contain the blowout and kill the out-of-control well over the course of the next 87 days. In all, the federal government calculated that about 172 million gallons spilled into the Gulf. BP put the number much lower, closer to 100 million gallons. Richard Charter, a senior fellow with the Ocean Foundation and a longtime industry watchdog, said it would be cause for concern if a small company resumed drilling in the reservoir. Charter said drilling into that reservoir has proved very dangerous and highly technical, and raises questions about whether a company like LLOG has the ¿QDQFLDOPHDQVWRUHVSRQGWR a blowout similar to BP’s. Don’t miss out on today’s great Home Loan rates! STUDENT OF THE WEEK Oscar Romero I RRIGON H IGH S CHOOL Our Student of the Week is Oscar Romero. Oscar is very involved in our school community. Oscar is an honor roll student, Vice President of the Senior Class and is active in Key Club. 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