tween 2005 and 2011, there was a 441percent increase in ethanol traffic by railroad. The spike resulted from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s 2005 renewable fuel standard, which requires gasoline manufacturers increasingly blend products such as ethanol into fuel. Ethanol is made with fermented plant matter, such as corn. It’s highly volatile and commonly transported in DOT-111s. Other products transported locally in DOT-111s include diesel fuel and gasoline, which are on par with Bakken oil when it comes to flammability. On a recent Monday afternoon on Raser Drive in Missoula, strings of DOT111s filled with gasoline and diesel lined the railyard across the street from the Phillips 66 Refined Products Terminal. The Phillips 66 facility marks an unloading and
federal regulations. “The Missoula Terminal handles refined products such as gasoline and diesel,” Barnes wrote. “These products are safely shipped in rail cars that meet current regulatory standards.”
While admitted problems exist, shipments of Bakken oil and other hazardous materials continue, full steam ahead. The Congressional Research Service estimates that 650,000 carloads of crude oil will be transported by rail this year, up nearly 50 percent from 2013. Much of that oil is coming out of the Williston Basin, in which, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, 7.4 billion barrels of oil remained as of last year. Eager to get the oil to market, the Tesoro Refining & Marketing Company last
The council’s resolution is non-binding. Facility approval will ultimately be decided by Washington Gov. Jay Inslee. Washington state’s deliberations will likely overlap with those of federal transportation officials, who in the coming months will decide to what extent, if any, they will further regulate oil train shipments. In Canada, transportation officials announced this spring that the country will phase out DOT-111s within three years. The decision triggered alarm in the U.S., with advocacy groups warning that if American officials don’t also prohibit DOT-111s from transporting Bakken oil, Canada’s unwanted tanker cars are likely to land stateside. “If these tank cars present an imminent and urgent danger to Canadian citizens, they pose an identical threat to Americans,” wrote TRAC, a coalition of
The Phillips 66 Refined Products Terminal in Missoula serves as a transfer station for fuel being shipped to Washington state. Tanker cars criticized by regulators move gasoline and diesel fuel from the facility to Thompson Falls.
a transfer point for the Yellowstone Pipeline, which carries fuel from Billings refineries and, after a brief interruption between Missoula and Thompson Falls, continues on to Moses Lake, Wash. The pipeline is emptied in Missoula because a series of leaks on the Flathead Indian Reservation, including one that in 1993 spilled 10,000 gallons of jet fuel in Camas Creek, prompted the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes to pull the Yellowstone’s easement in 1996. Absent the easement, shippers have for years removed fuel from the pipeline at Missoula and then transported it by train through the reservation and north to Paradise, Plains and Thompson Falls, where it is again put in the Yellowstone. Phillips 66 spokesman Michael Barnes refused to tell the Independent how many trains come out of the terminal daily. “It is our company’s practice not to share specific volumes of our individual facilities,” he wrote in an email. When asked if the company is confident using DOT-111 tanker cars, Barnes pointed to existing
year proposed building a 360,000 barrel-perday oil transfer facility in Vancouver, Wash. If Washington state regulators authorize it, the transfer facility would be the largest in the Northwest. Tesoro’s facility stands to increase petroleum shipments through Montana by five trains per day, according to research compiled by the Western Organization of Resource Councils, a coalition of environmental advocacy groups. Tesoro’s plans have drawn criticism, most notably from the Vancouver City Council, which, on June 2, passed a resolution opposing the terminal and any other project that would increase petroleum shipments by rail. When citing its rationale for passing the resolution, the council noted a January 2014 warning from the NTSB: “Because there is no mandate for railroads to develop comprehensive plans or ensure the availability of necessary response resources, carriers have effectively placed the burden of remediating the environmental consequences of an accident on local communities along their routes.”
Canadian and American municipal officials, in a letter to the White House. “We applaud the Canadian government’s ban of the older versions of the DOT-111. … We wish the same sense of urgency existed for American regulators.” As American regulators continue their slow deliberations, Paske and other MFD firefighters are continuing to prepare for possible scenarios. In July, a local emergency response crew is slated to attend a newly offered three-day Bakken oil fire training workshop in Pueblo, Colo., hosted by BNSF. Paske says roughly 60 percent of the July training will be devoted to field exercises, such as learning the mechanics of tanker train valves and how to use foam to fight a blaze. He hopes the training also involves working first-hand on a Bakken fire because he’s never faced one before. Paske says he plans on taking full advantage of the education on oil trains because, he says, “it sounds like there’s going to be more and more of them.” jmayrer@missoulanews.com
missoulanews.com • June 19–June 26, 2014 [17]