Editorial: Accelerate oil train safety

It’s daunting to think that the proper governmental body to respond to oil train safety is Congress, because so little is getting done in the nation’s capital. Nonetheless, it’s true, because the rail industry is federally regulated and the regulators have been slow to respond.

This leaves communities with little to do except protest and pass symbolic resolutions. On Monday night, the Spokane City Council passed a nonbinding resolution that calls on Union Pacific to stop oil shipments through Mosier, Oregon, after a derailment last week that essentially shut down the small Columbia River Gorge town.

Sixteen cars derailed last Friday, and 42,000 gallons of crude were spilled. Some cars burst into flames, and about one-quarter of the town’s residents were evacuated. Some oil made it to the river, creating a visible sheen, though it appears as if oil booms have the spill under control.

Mosier is a windsurfing mecca, but on Friday it was calm. Had it been windy, the entire town could’ve gone up in flames, Mosier’s mayor said. The town didn’t have the flame retardant needed, with the closest supply at Portland International Airport. The town’s fire chief used to support oil train transport through town. This derailment has changed his mind.

The Mosier incident is what every railroad town fears. An oil train derailment along the elevated tracks of downtown Spokane could be catastrophic to people and the river.

This won’t be the last accident. The federal government predicts 207 derailments of trains carrying crude oil or ethanol over the next 20 years. At least 26 oil trains have been involved in major accidents in the past 10 years, according to the Associated Press.

As domestic oil production has increased over the past decade, so have train shipments, with the crude from the Bakken Fields of North Dakota being particularly volatile. Large scale transport by rail is relatively new, and the tank cars weren’t built for the task. Tank car upgrades are being phased in, but the CPC-1232 cars that derailed in Mosier are the new models. They, in turn, are to be phased out by 2030 in favor of an even safer car.

Robert Sumwalt, a National Transportation Safety Board member, says the 14-year phase-in is too long, according to Marketplace.org. He’s also concerned that it could get delayed. Congress has already extended the deadline to 2018 for “positive train control,” an innovation designed to avoid derailments and train-to-train collisions. The original deadline was Dec. 31, 2015.

We are not opposed to interstate commerce, and the domestic oil production boom and the increased shipping business have been good for the economy. But benefits are flowing mostly to the parties on both ends of that transaction, while communities in between are left to hope they’re not the next headline.

The pendulum must swing back to safety, and that begins with rapid federal reforms that reflect the new reality. It’s time for Congress to get on board.

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