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
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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.
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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
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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.
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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
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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
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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
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a blowout similar to BP’s.
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