Oil trains

Hundreds of millions of gallons of crude oil now move through Oregon each year. Railroad companies have pushed to keep shipment information from the public.

(Rob Davis/The Oregonian)

Two railroad companies under a federal order to tell Oregon emergency responders where they move volatile North Dakota crude oil are trying to keep the information from the public, asking the state to sign confidentiality agreements restricting notification to first responders.

In Washington, state officials have refused to sign those agreements, saying they would violate the state's public records law. Oregon is still deciding what to do.

"We want to provide as much information as we can," said Sue Otjen, Oregon's State Emergency Response Commission coordinator. "We need to know to what extent we can disclose it."

BNSF Railway Co. and Union Pacific have both asked Oregon to affirm that it will only release oil train volumes and routing information "for bonafide emergency planning and emergency response activities," Otjen said.

Otjen said she's leaving the decision to Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum's office. A spokeswoman for Rosenblum said a review was underway.

Rosenblum's office has required public disclosure of oil train routing before. When the Oregon Department of Transportation tried to keep routes secret earlier this year, The Oregonian successfully obtained an order from Rosenblum's office mandating their disclosure.

An emergency federal order in May requires railroads carrying more than 1 million gallons of highly flammable North Dakota oil in a single train – about 35 tank cars – to tell state authorities how many trains they expect to move weekly through each county. They also must disclose the routes and notify the state before making significant changes to shipment volumes or frequencies.

Though much of this information is known today, railroads have provided it haphazardly and voluntarily to Oregon first responders. Firefighters across the state didn't learn that explosive crude oil was moving through their communities until after shipments began.

Union Pacific, which moves Utah oil through the Columbia River Gorge, notified the state that it wasn't hauling North Dakota oil in Oregon. Otjen said she didn't consider that information privileged.

BNSF hasn't provided any information yet. A BNSF spokeswoman said the company believes "this type of shipment data is considered security sensitive and confidential, intended for people who have 'a need to know' such information, such as first responders and emergency planners."

A third railroad company, Portland and Western, which moves hundreds of millions of gallons of North Dakota oil to a terminal near Clatskanie, hasn't sent any notice to the state yet, Otjen said, nor a confidentiality request.

-- Rob Davis