Union Pacific Has Started Running Trains in Mosier Again—Next to Leaking, Derailed Cars

Environmental watchdog Columbia Riverkeeper says derailed train cars were still leaking when Union Pacific started moving cargo on rebuilt tracks this weekend. Columbia Riverkeeper

Union Pacific has started running trains on a rebuilt track next to the crude oil cars that derailed and caught fire in Mosier, Oregon last Friday. On Sunday, environmental watchdog Columbia Riverkeeper captured photos of what appear to be the contents of these derailed cars leaking onto white tarp.

Before it derailed, the train of crude oil was bound for Tacoma.

Columbia Riverkeeper took this image on Sunday, June 5—two days after the 16-car derailment. Columbia Riverkeeper

Mosier's Mayor Emily Reed had asked that the railroad clean up all derailed cars (16 in total) before running trains on the rebuilt track. Union Pacific refused.

“[The oil-filled cars] are only a few feet away, however, they are not posing an issue,” Union Pacific spokesperson Raquel Espinoza told KOIN 6. “There are a lot of companies that are counting on us.”

A day after the derailment, Mosier fire chief Jim Appleton told Oregon Public Broadcasting that he used to have faith in Union Pacific's ability to avert disaster. No longer.

“I hope that this becomes death knell for this mode of shipping this cargo. I think it’s insane,” Appleton told OPB. “I’ve been very hesitant to take a side up to now, but with this incident, and with all due respect to the wonderful people that I’ve met at Union Pacific, shareholder value doesn’t outweigh the lives and happiness of our community.”

On Saturday, the Washington State Department of Ecology also reported that it was investigating an oil sheen spotted on the Columbia River. The fire had been extinguished, and crews worked in 100-degree heat in order to remove wreckage from the tracks.

Today's overflight pics of the #mosier oil train crash. Our team continues to boom the sheen on the Columbia River. pic.twitter.com/mHFhne582i

— WA Dept of Ecology (@EcologyWA) June 4, 2016

Several local tribes have issued statements expressing concern about the repercussions of the Oregon derailment, as well as the larger consequences of the Pacific Northwest's growing fossil fuel transportation and export industries.

"Increasing the amount of oil-carrying trains traveling through our Ceded Lands and along the Columbia River, where we have fished since time immemorial, will only lead to increased derailments," Yakama Nation chairman JoDe Goudy said in a statement. "The current proposals to transform our lands and waters in this area into a fossil fuel transportation and an export superhighway are a direct threat to our people and we will treat them as such."