River Shutdown Could Create Oil, Gas Shortage Petroleum Products Stranded On West Side Of The Cascades

Unless state lawmakers can avert a crisis, Spokane and Eastern Washington will run low on heating oil and gasoline.

Millions of gallons of petroleum products are stuck in tankers anchored off the Oregon coast because the gates of the Columbia River closed early today - for two weeks.

First, ice and flooding on the Columbia kept an estimated 16 million gallons of assorted fuels from making it from Portland to fuel depots at Pasco, where a pipeline takes them to Spokane.

Now the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has shut down river traffic for two weeks of scheduled maintenence at locks and dams.

That, combined with a shortage of fuel supplies coming from Montana refineries, threatens to drain storage tanks in Spokane.

Heating oil supplies already are running dry, distributors said.

To allow adequate quantities of fuel to reach Eastern Washington, lawmakers are trying to strike a deal with the corps to keep the Columbia open five more days.

“We are viewing it as a crisis. … We have to find a way to deliver that heating oil,” said Rep. Karen Schmidt, R-Bainbridge Island, who chairs the House Transportation Committee.

Schmidt said lawmakers got a late start in resolving the problem because they weren’t informed of the situation until Tuesday morning. “They dumped this on us at the 11th hour,” she said.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has been asked to intervene in the matter on the state’s behalf.

But Jim Erickson of the state disaster field office said FEMA won’t respond until there is an official report of an emergency.

“We’re in the emergency business, and nothing has been reported to us,” he said.

Alternatives to shipping the fuel by barge are costly and time-consuming. A caravan of trucks would be needed because railroad tracks along the Columbia are considered unsafe due to flooding.

“We don’t have the rail capacity to meet the demand, and we don’t have enough trucks to cover the Interstate 90 corridor,” said Jerry McMahon of American Waterways Operators.

On the eve of the river shutdown, Chevron Corp. reported that its supply of heating oil in Spokane had been exhausted.

With the river route closed, Chevron spokesman Bob Osmundson said the company needs to send 30 truck-loads of petroleum products a day to Spokane to keep cars on the road and heaters burning.

“Those trucks aren’t just sitting around looking for work,” he said. “It’s going to be tough to get that many.”

The Corps of Engineers claims it can’t open the river to barge traffic because it has to protect endangered salmon. The Corps says strict maintenance deadlines must be met in order to get equipment in place at dams to protect fingerling salmon, which start swimming downriver in early March.

“It’s better to do it at this time of year than later, when there is more river traffic,” said Corps spokeswoman Dawn Edwards. “Our call is to close the locks. If the call is made to open the locks, FEMA will have to do that.”

The maintenance was originally scheduled to begin Monday, but the Corps opted to leave the river open two more days to accommodate cargo vessels.

Raymond Hickey of Tidewater Barge Lines in Portland, the largest petroleum shipper on the river, said the reprieve had little effect because flooding kept made loading docks inaccessible to barges.

Hickey said he normally ships 1.6 million gallons of fuel supplies up the Columbia to Pasco every day.

There are also problems with flows from refineries in Montana, which meet about 40 percent of Spokane’s requirements.

Gasoline, diesel and other products normally reach the city through a Yellowstone Pipe Line Co. line from Thompson Falls, Mont.

But John Bennitt, spokesman for Conoco Oil Co., said shippers have been unable to reach Thompson Falls because of flood-damaged roads.

Diesel, jet fuel and kerosene, which can be used as furnace oil, have been delivered to Spokane by rail, he said, while gasoline has been hauled by truck on Interstate 90. Both alternatives are slower.

Trucks were to resume delivery to Thompson Falls early this morning, Bennitt said. That will increase the flow, he said, although weight limits will restrict the amount of gasoline the trucks can haul.

But Bennitt said Conoco dealers in Spokane have adequate supplies of fuel. “In other words, don’t panic,” he said. “There’s no reason for gas lines.”

, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: BYLINE = Tom Roeder Staff writer Staff writer Bert Caldwell contributed to this report.