In a humbling moment Tuesday night, Washougal Mayor Sean Guard turned to three representatives of BNSF Railway and admitted the city has little power to halt the rise of trains carrying volatile crude oil through Washougal.
“Obviously, we don’t get the choice to stop you,” Guard said. “We don’t really get the choice of what you’ve got moving on those (tracks) or the times that they come through.”
Guard and several members of the Washougal City Council hosted the BNSF representatives for a discussion Tuesday night at Washougal High School regarding a slew of concerns about safety and traffic impacts from the influx of oil trains through the region. Officials from north county, Stevenson, Camas and Ridgefield also showed up to get some answers about what the future holds for their cities as Tesoro Corp. and Savage Companies look to build the largest oil-by-rail terminal in the country in Vancouver.
Together, the companies have formed a partnership known as Vancouver Energy. If approved, the venture’s new terminal would eventually move an average of 360,000 barrels of crude oil per day.
Opponents of the plan decry the idea of bringing more volatile Bakken crude oil into the region, posing a more severe risk in the case of derailments, oil spills and other disasters. Supporters have gotten behind it as a boon to business and development throughout the county.
Washougal Councilor Paul Greenlee is uneasy with the idea of more trains traveling so close to the city’s water supply, in some spots less than 100 feet away.
“I don’t care what your emergency response is,” Greenlee said. “If you dump a train on top of that — and if you’ll excuse my French — we are … truly screwed.”
Oil train disasters, though infrequent, are devastating, Greenlee said.
Among the top concerns is how long additional trains could hold up traffic at the major intersections. Guard asked what the city can do to mitigate the impact of trains running through the city. On two occasions, he’s experienced getting stuck at an intersection for about 15 minutes while waiting for a train to pass.
The issue was also a major concern for Ridgefield Mayor Ron Onslow, who noted that stalling trains pose a serious threat to emergency responders trying to access the city’s floating home community on Lake River.
In one incident, a passing train held up responders for about five minutes, leaving two dogs to die in a fire at a floating home.
“The fact is that the fire department could not get to that floating home,” Onslow said.
Some of the residents in that area are also concerned about the passing trains sparking a brush fire, Onslow said.
Patrick Brady, BNSF’s director of hazardous materials, told Onslow the trains can spark a fire, but it wouldn’t be enough to ignite an oil train. Fail safes are also built into the trains to automatically stop them and alert the crew in such situations, he said.
“We do lubricate the rail, and so you shouldn’t get a lot of that,” Brady said. “But there is a potential for sparking.”
The city held the discussion with BNSF in hopes of gaining more insights into the issue before taking an official stance on oil trains this winter. The council will likely propose an oil train resolution in January.
The ultimate decision on the oil terminal will be made by Gov. Jay Inslee.
