Thursday Meeting & News Updates

GENERAL MEETING OF GRAYS HARBOR

 COALITION FOR INFRUSTRUCTURE

Aberdeen -- The meeting will be between 

5:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.

Thursday, May 22nd at the Furford 

Gathering Center (near Baskin

Robins) at 104 S Chehalis St., Aberdeen, WA

 98520.

The public is respectfully invited to come 

and participate. For more

information call 360-580-8564.

Rail re-opens

via The Daily World

The rail line between Centralia and Aberdeen re-opened at 5 a.m. Monday morning, Genesee &Wyoming spokesman Michael Williams said.“Following the highly unusual string of low-speed derailments, all 56 miles were intensely inspected over the weekend, based on last week’s third-party geometry-car data, and any issues have been remediated,” Williams said. 

Central Oregon Grapples With Rising Oil Train Safety Risks

via earthfix

 “All of a sudden there’s this increasing awareness of how many trains are moving through our region,” said Bend City Councilor Sally Russell, who noted that a set of shared BNSF and Union Pacific railroad tracks run right through her city. “We straddle that rail line, so all this really volatile oil is moving right through the center of Bend -– and really all of Central Oregon. It’s very much a concern.”

Caution: Toxic Tax Exempt Oil Train Crossing Ahead

via Oil Change

Last Thursday, Plains All American’s “Line 2000” pipeline that runs through California ruptured, spraying oil 20 feet in the air andspilling an estimated 10,000 gallons of oilinto the street of a Los Angeles neighborhood and creating knee-deep pools of crude oil up to 40-feet wide.The 20-inch break occurred at a nearby pump station on the pipeline’s 130-mile route between the central California oil fields in the San Joaquin Valley and refineries in Long Beach, including those owned by Phillips 66, Valero, and Tesoro.Those are the bare facts of this latest oil industry incident.  But a closer examination reveals Plains All American’s callous attitude towards safety that is enabled by taxpayer dollars, and expanding to more and more communities around the U.S.

Crude by rail input will not come from Grays Harbor County Commissioners

via KXRO radio

Commissioner Wes Cormier said that he didn’t believe that it was the place of the board to make such a resolution and speak not only for the entire region.Cormier and Commissioner Herb Welch both voted no on the resolution and Cosmopolis Mayor Vickie Raines also spoke during the public comment period asking that they did not pass the resolution and she tells KXRO that she believes the public should have had more of an opportunity to see the resolution before it was discussed.