By Nancy Hiser
Our Neighborhood Association received a public notice recently about McCall Oil’s request for expansion that includes10 new rail car spaces and new pipelines into the Willamette. A family business, McCall has been in Linnton for 80 years—well before the seismic vulnerability here was understood. However, now we know the ages of tanks and their compromised structural integrity, their proximity to each other, the 300 million gallons of fuel and hazardous chemicals, and their location on liquefiable soil in a flood plain and. collectively, these take our risks to unimaginable scenarios. For the City’s Bureau of Development Services to approve this land use proposal defies logic–it is not safe.
LNA has been studying the CEI Hub risks for 10 years, since DOGAMI (the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries) published a 2012 report and the Oregon Resilience Plan was released in 2013 stating, “The CEI Hub is a major threat to safety, environment, and recovery after a CSZ earthquake on par with the 2011 Fukushima nuclear meltdown in Japan” The scientific research and details have continued to mount: a catastrophe could be triggered by an earthquake, human error, equipment malfunction, railcar derailment, or natural hazards.
Data for McCall’s 26 tanks indicates they were first built in 1954, mostly in the 1970’s, with only 5 tanks built in 2000 or later–that means that over 80% of these were built before seismic standards were adopted in 1993, making them more likely to fail. Most of their fuel could spill into the Willamette. Their infrastructure could be subject to damage or collapse because of the soil it sits on.
McCall plans to transition to renewable diesel to reduce dependence on fossil fuels. However, renewable fuel is not clean–it’s still volatile and combustible and its benefits to mitigate climate change are uncertain. What is certain is that we must adopt a clean, sustainable energy source as soon as possible and most experts believe that is electrification.
We wrote to McCall and commented to the Bureau of Development Services (BDS), that our objection to the proposal is based on their location which they cannot make safe. Planned construction of infrastructure and pipelines on infill soil is hazardous. Increased rail traffic would heighten risk of derailments and higher risk of vehicle accidents with resulting fires and explosions–possibly triggering involvement of fuel storage tanks. Increased rail, barge, and truck transportation to and from refineries would cause more toxic diesel particulate emissions.
McCall, if you are committed to expansion, please relocate to a safer location where the health and safety of your workers and the community is a priority. Don’t add to the risk of catastrophe.
If you wish to read our letter and supporting documentation about McCall Oil, please email: nancyhiser@comcast.net
Linnton Speaks Out, our advocacy group, is contacting BDS to ask them to deny this expansion at the CEI Hub. We must work together to lessen the possibility of a disaster, not increase it.