SPOKANE — Three weeks after proposing an ordinance to fine railroad operators up to $261 per car carrying crude oil or coal through downtown Spokane, the City Council has voted to withdraw the measure.
Supporters cited the certainty of a successful legal challenge to the proposal, and a desire to work with railroads to prevent derailments.
The Spokesman-Review reports that the Spokane City Council voted 5-2 on Monday to withdraw the measure from the November ballot.
City Council President Ben Stuckart, who led the charge with a presentation on July 25 depicting a dozen fiery oil train derailments, said he now believed the fine would expose the citizens to too much legal liability.
“I don’t believe that it’s legally defensible, or defensible for us to bring forward,” Stuckart said Monday evening.
Stuckart said he’d received legal advice from students at the Gonzaga Law School clinic, as well as the council’s policy adviser before changing his mind.
The votes to keep the issue on the ballot came from Councilman Breean Beggs, who crafted the ordinance’s language, and Councilwoman Lori Kinnear, who said the city was in no better bargaining position with railroad operators than they were last month.
Beggs said after the vote he believed the ordinance could have withstood a legal challenge. But he said the more important accomplishment with the proposal was informing the public about what could be done to oppose shipments from the Bakken shale oil fields in North Dakota.
“This has amplified the conversation,” Beggs said.
Bakken oil is more explosive than other types of oil, according to a study performed by the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration in 2014. The proposed ordinance would have targeted oil moving through Spokane from North Dakota, which Beggs said does not go through the same treatment process to neutralize explosive elements that oil in other parts of the country receives.
The council members who joined Stuckart in changing their minds to remove the issue from the ballot said proposing the ordinance set the railroad companies at odds with the city, which would complicate any efforts to improve safety standards through negotiations.
“I’m hoping that everybody here is going to realize that we’d much rather be doing this, moving forward solving our public safety concerns, with those folks as partners, and not as adversaries,” Councilman Mike Fagan said of the railroad companies.
In recent weeks, multiple agencies, including groups supporting railroads, had spoken out against the measure, saying the City Council was attempting to usurp too much authority from Congress to regulate rail traffic. Supporters, including the local firefighters union, cited fiery crashes involving trains moving Bakken crude.
Stuckart asked the council to suspend the rules to allow the council to consider the withdrawal vote Monday night.
