In a packed hearing at the St. Helens Public Library on Dec. 12, commissioners of the Port of St. Helens voted unanimously to allow oil company Global Partners to handle a much wider variety of oil products through its Port Westward facility in Clatskanie. Global Partners, through its subsidiary, Cascade Kelly Holdings LLC, owns the Columbia Pacific Bio-Refinery at the Port Westward terminal.
The decision paves the way for a significant oil export business on the Columbia River, as well as more mile-long oil trains traveling on both sides of the Columbia River Gorge through both Portland and Vancouver, according to the conservation group Columbia Riverkeeper. With this change the Clatskanie facility is also connected to both the bakken oil fields of North Dakota and the tar sands mines of Canada.
The vote was strongly criticized by local residents, who complain the decision was rushed and voices were not heard.
“The idea of polluting the Columbia River with thousands of gallons of crude makes me want to throw up,” said Nancy Ward, a local resident and president of Clean Columbia County. “If they really wanted an inclusive process, they would have called for a public meeting, or town hall, or some forum for public input. Listing it as a simple agenda item meant it wasn’t a secret but it also did little to shine a light on the critical nature of the issue.”
On Nov. 14, the Port of St. Helens heard a public presentation from Global Partners that asked them to lift all restrictions on the API gravity of oils handled at the port. API gravity, or specific gravity, is an inverse measure that is used to determine the weight of petroleum liquids in comparison to water. When Global Partners purchased the port operation in 2013, the property came with an API limit of 30 to 44. Oil floats at API gravity of 10 and higher.
At their next meeting on Nov. 28, Port commissioners came prepared to vote on a resolution that would scale back these restrictions, but decided to delay for two weeks after hearing strong concerns from local residents and city officials. The vote on Dec. 12 lowered the weight range to API 18-44, which translates to heavier oil.
Testifying on behalf of the St. Helens City Council on Dec. 12, Mayor Rick Scholl asked commissioners to conduct a comprehensive rail impact study before approving any modifications to their lease with Global Partners, observing that the length of trains shipped to Global Partners exceeded any other rail user, closing many intersections in St. Helens – a community only a mile and a half long.
“We had testimony, over two hours of passionate testimony from Scappoose, to Warren, to St. Helens, Columbia City – nowhere on there was it on my agenda, and yet everybody was heard, and taken into consideration,” Scholl said.
St. Helens Council President Doug Morten was next to address the commissioners, focusing his opening remarks on the issue of “good governance.”
“Looking at our council, the only poor decisions, and the bad decisions that we’ve made (is) because we had time pressure, and we had to make that decision. I just took note that you guys are going to go out and make a decision this morning, and that’s ... wow ... I hope everyone has the opportunity to air their opinion.”
Commissioners said they supported Global Partners’ request because the company required greater flexibility to succeed. This message was echoed by Global employees. One employee in charge of maintenance at the facility told commissioners, “I am definitely for what we’re doing out there at the Port, whether Global owns us or not. … We are not going do something out there that is unsafe for us and our family. We are trying to take care of our families, and this is the best we can do at this time.”
An hour and a half later, the Port commissioners ended their meeting with a line of people still waiting to testify, and Commissioner Chris Iverson threatening to have one man arrested for demanding they postpone the vote until everyone had a chance to speak.
“There were lots of people, pro and con, who wanted to speak and weren’t allowed to speak, and to me that’s not how democracy should work,” said Brady Preheim of Scappoose. Preheim said many people at the Port’s Nov. 28 hearing were also not able to testify.
Speaking after the hearing about the resolution, Commissioner Larry Ericksen said, “There’s just nothing wonderful I can say about it. I just can’t.” He later added, “I will amend what I said. There is one good thing I’ll say about it – in regards to the very happy people in Clatskanie who get to keep their jobs. So that’s the good thing.”
API questions and safety concerns
At their Nov. 28 hearing, Port officials promised not to allow oils under an API gravity of 10. Lower numbers of gravity mean heavier oil. The port officials claimed this would ensure that any oil spilled would not sink into the Columbia River, and would mean less risk of fire and explosion.
At the Port’s Dec. 12 meeting, one retired DEQ official, Greg Pettit, explained how heavy tar sands oil of API 10 must be mixed with other chemicals for shipment – raising its API rating and increasing its flammability while in transit. Scott Smith, a spill contingency planner with DEQ, also testified to the commission that these mixed chemicals separate or “divorce” when oil spills – allowing heavier oils to sink while lighter substances float. For Pettit, this makes diluted bitumen in the approved range “the worst of both worlds.”
Smith told commissioners that not much could be said in general about the safety or composition of these substances. “There’s a lot of ways to alter the chemistry of oil,” Smith said. “Every spill with crude oil is kind of unique.”
According to Smith, a spill of diluted bitumen in the lower ranges “would probably be something like the (2010) Kalamazoo River in Michigan. And in that spill, the clean-up took years.” The Kalamazoo spill was also one of the largest and most expensive inland oil spills in U.S. history – due in part to the behavior of diluted bitumen, which Smith emphasized was extremely sticky and difficult to locate under water. Smith also told the commission there were many unknowns with regard to the handling or cleaning of heavy oils, and that these issues would have to be considered in the facility’s oil spill response plan – currently set to expire in August 2019.
“The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality hasn’t developed rules for submerged oils yet. I wish we had,” Smith said.
Oil and public process in the Northwest
The process governing oil trains to Oregon has unfolded very differently than the one in Washington state. One oil facility in Vancouver was studied for 4 ½ years and received 289,000 public comments before it was rejected by Washington Gov. Jay Inslee. Three more terminals proposed in Gray’s Harbor were also defeated after receiving more than 100,000 public comments.
But commissioners at the Port of St. Helens gave the public 28 days from start to finish before voting on API changes that could have ripple effects across Columbia County and in cities all along both the BNSF rail line in Washington and the Union Pacific rail line in Oregon. Commissioners were even prepared to vote two weeks earlier before hearing from city officials critical of the plan. During that two-week delay, port commissioners said they received about 500 emails, most of them against loosening API gravity restrictions.
Many uncertainties resulting from such a short public process were on full display at the Dec. 12 hearing.
Paul Peterson, superintendent of the Scappoose School District, asked commissioners if proposed API changes would make students along the railroad either more or less safe. Peterson repeated the question four times before commissioner Patrick Trapp replied that the number of variables involved made it “unfair to give you an answer one way or another.”
“Those of you wondering whether this will be safer for the school, the answer is no. It will not be safer for the school if you move oil for Global Partners,” countered Dan Serres of Columbia Riverkeeper. “We urge you to retain the current limitations on the API standard. Both because of the drinking water issues ... but also as a basic safety issue. People in the Northwest are at risk with every one of these trains that passes through our region. We’re playing Russian roulette with oil trains, and we’re asking you not to put more bullets in that gun.”
Among those urging the Port to postpone their vote was Vancouver resident Don Steinke, who asked the commission to reject any proposal that would lead to additional oil trains traveling through Vancouver. Steinke also highlighted the difference between the public process in St. Helens and Vancouver.
“We did 4.5 years of an environmental study for that oil terminal up there. How many years have you spent writing an environmental study?”
The final language of the Port’s approved resolution was not made available to the public until it was posted to the port website on Dec. 14, two days after their vote. At the hearing, many people lacking access to that final resolution directed their comments not just at API changes, but also to a proposal, published in The Columbian and The Daily News, that would have expanded the permitted length of trains from 1 mile to 1.5 miles. Port officials now say that changing the length of trains was never under consideration and do not know the source of this information.
What’s next
Last June, the state’s Public Utilities Commission approved the sale of additional storage tanks to Global Partners which would increase its total storage capacity to 58 million gallons – or 1.38 million barrels of oil. By comparison Vancouver Energy, which would have been the country’s largest oil-by-rail facility, had a planned storage capacity of 2.25 million barrels.
The Columbia Pacific Bio-Refinery at Port Westward came equipped with two 3.8 million gallon storage tanks – equivalent to 180,000 barrels of oil. Paula Miranda, deputy executive director of the Port of St. Helens, said the sale of these additional storage tanks has not yet been finalized, as the company is seeking new customers to make the deal viable. Miranda says expanding the range of oils moved through the facility may help make the tank sale more attractive.
Miranda said the facility is currently restricted to receiving 24-unit trains per month and is allowed to ship 38 trains per month if certain rail improvements are completed. There are no restrictions to maritime shipments of oil or methanol from the port, Miranda said.
In March 2014, the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality fined Global Partners $102,292 for shipping nearly six times its permitted quantity of oil – moving 297 million gallons between December 2012 and November 2013. It was only permitted to move 50 million gallons annually. In August of that year, the Oregon DEQ approved a permit allowing Global to move 1.8 billion gallons of oil every year – enough to fill 50 trains per month.
New legislation
In the aftermath of the 2016 oil train derailment in Mosier, two pieces of legislation were proposed in the Oregon Legislature to address oil train safety – House Bill 2131, sponsored by Rep. Barbara Smith Warner of Portland, and Senate Bill 7, sponsored by Sen. Peter Courtney. Both bills failed in 2017. They are expected to be reconsidered in the 2019 legislative session.
HB 2131 would have required railroads to submit emergency response and contingency plans related to hazardous materials to state regulators – including the state Fire Marshal and Oregon Department of Environmental Quality. These provisions are supported by the Hood River City Council, the Mosier City Council and the Hood River County Board of Commissioners.
Dan Serres of Columbia Riverkeeper said that what happens next at Port Westward will largely depend on whether state leaders are willing to address oil train safety in 2019.
“Oregon is going to continue to be targeted for this type of traffic – oil train traffic – until or unless someone in state government stands up to this industry,” Serres said.
And the immediate question, Serres said, is whether the DEQ decides to take a hard look at risks from the facility – something that has not yet happened since it began moving oil in 2012.
“This is a problem, to be honest, that Oregon doesn’t have more of a process for evaluating projects like this when they make big changes. The recipe for getting a successful oil terminal going appears to be: propose and build it as something else, and then switch it. “
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