The Threat of Derailment

March 19, 2018

EUGENE Or – Jim Neu is a member of the local environmental advocacy group 350Eugene. Shortly after moving to the Eugene area Neu recognized danger along the rail road tracks. “My wife and I were downtown at the Steelhead and the place started shaking. It was a train that came through that happened to be a Union train headed down to the Bay area for refining,” Neu said.

An oil spill from a train derailment within Eugene’s city limits could prove devastating. A small-scale derailment in September of 2016 near the West Eugene neighborhood showed citizens of Eugene just how close the railroad tracks are to homes and businesses.

“I went through and counted up in Eugene and Springfield,” Neu said. “There are 33 elementary schools, junior highs, and high schools in the blast zone.”

An increase in production from the Bakken oil fields has led to the growth of rail traffic transporting fossil fuels to refinement plants. After a large-scale derailment and spill in Mosier, Oregon last year the possibility of an event resembling that one looms large.

In June of 2016, a Union Pacific train carrying crude oil for refinement derailed just outside the small town of Mosier and burst into flames. The derailment caused billowing smoke and sewage issues for the small town.

Recently Eugene’s city council passed Resolution 5181 which opposes the transportation of oil by rail through the city. But while the resolution calls attention to the issue of oil transportation it cannot prohibit the railroad companies from transporting it.

“Getting the oil spill response equipment out to more remote areas is going to be very difficult,” Michael Zollitsch of the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality said. Large scale spills will require well prepared responders and equipment that goes beyond what many small towns can maintain.

Standard railcars can hold about 30,000 gallons of oil, reports Nathan Svejcar who works as a firefighter and a member of the Haz-Mat unit in Eugene. In the event of a large-scale fire like the one last year, firefighters and the Haz-Mat unit would work together to put out the fire using a combination of water and foam.

Svejcar explains that to put out an oil fire, much like a kitchen grease fire, it is protocol to smother the flames with foam. The foam, he goes on to say, is provided by Union Pacific Railroad to Eugene’s Haz-Mat unit. There are 1,100 gallons of foam, which would be combined with water, to put out the blaze. Svejcar said that the 1,100 gallons would be enough to put out three to five burning railroad cars.

“Our estimated response time would be within five minutes,” Svejcar says. Eugene would not have to go it alone in the event of a large spill.

The derailment in Mosier last year ignited eleven rail cars and affected the city’s sewage system.

Svejcar pointed out that Eugene emergency response teams could be aided by Roseburg and the combination of Albany and Corvallis teams if the situation were dire enough. However, a derailment of the same magnitude within the city limits of Eugene could prove more problematic than the one in Mosier. Eugene is more densely populated than Mosier, and many tracks skirt whole neighborhoods like downtown, the university district, and the Whiteaker community.

In the event of a derailment responders would be most concerned with containment, to keep flames from reaching other oil cars and spreading. To stay prepared the 21 members of the Haz-Mat unit participate in a monthly drill, that allows them to share knowledge and new protocols.

Prohibiting the railroads from transporting specific materials would be next to impossible explains Councilman Greg Evans.

“Union Pacific [Railroad] is almost nearly the power of God,” Evans said during the January 25th Eugene City Council meeting. “This resolution calls attention to what can happen to human beings and to our environment if the proper measures are not in place to protect our communities.”

The councilman in a later interview made it clear that the human cost of an oil spill within city limits could be impossible to predict. Evans went on to explain that the infrastructure of the tracks, and the rail road cars themselves, are decrepit and in need of repairs. Failing tools with which to transport hazardous materials increase the likelihood of incident.

“I think the big lesson is recognizing that we have not maintained these tracks up to the standards that we need to,” Mayor Lucy Vinis explains.

Trains and the railroad tracks themselves have been allowed to age poorly, and often haul materials that their cars were not designed to haul. Michael Zollitsch reports that Govorner Kitzhaber passed an order that required crude oil to be transported in upgraded train cars.

“They won’t be 100% safe but, you know, they’ll be better,” he says.

Gus Melonas who works for BNSF Railways is no stranger to protests against the railroad companies especially in the Pacific North West. Melonas noted that protests held near active rails are dangerous for train operators and for the protesters themselves.

“We don’t control what we haul,” Melonas said, “we control how we haul it.” Federal regulation requires companies like BNSF to haul everything. Melonas, who works for BNSF out of Seattle, reports that the company operates under a number of safety precautions like Haz-Mat training for responders, and particular loading for increased security.