Two railroad companies pulling oil trains through Oregon have asked state authorities to withhold the release of routing and scheduling information from the public. They're willing, following stepped up government pressure to do so, to tell Oregon transportation officials of their shipments regularly but want the information to be released to emergency incident responders along the routes on an "as-need-to-know" basis. They cite terrorist concerns and federal laws prohibiting disclosure of the movement of certified hazardous materials such as poisonous gas or radioactive materials.

Crude oil is not classified as a sensitive security commodity, however, though the explosiveness of crude from Bakken oil fields in North Dakota – just one among other the varieties moving through Oregon – has gained attention in the wake of recent oil train incidents. The worst tank car explosion occurred in Quebec, where 47 people were killed.

Now oil trains traverse Oregon in increasing number, passing through open fields but also through cities and near schoolyards and crossing rivers, The Oregonian's Rob Davis has reported. Bakken crude lands by rail in Clatskanie, west of Portland, before offloading to barges headed for refineries in Washington state and, to a lesser degree, California. Less volatile crude, from Utah, has been seen arriving in a mile-long train in Oregon along the Columbia River through the Columbia River Gorge – this photographed by a hiker following an assertion by the railroad company it was not moving mile-long oil trains through the gorge.

Meanwhile, oil tanker cars in indeterminate number roll near the Deschutes River in Bend, though not even the state's Department of Environmental Quality – charged with helping to contain any spills in or near such a sensitive waterway – has a real-time grasp of the traffic. DEQ, regrettably, is not among first responders – mainly limited to firefighters and police departments – and it assists local crews in helping to contain and clean up spills. But DEQ cannot have maximum impact in the critical first 12 to 24 hours of a mishap if it is out of the oil train information loop and late in arriving.

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Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum is reviewing the request by the railroad companies to limit distribution of oil train routing information to first responders and to keep it out of the public's hands by having the Oregon Department of Transportation sign confidentiality agreements. Rosenblum or her staff should deny the request, which in part is rooted in security concerns but also seeks to protect business information the railroads find competitive.

The benefit to the public's safety in knowing the volume and whereabouts of oil trains outweighs any threat of terrorism. Gasoline and diesel fuel are routinely and safely shipped by barge up the Columbia River, and the U.S. Coast Guard, as well as anyone accessing the service's records, can know about each and every journey. A practical, if comic, truth of the oil train phenomenon is that it's pretty difficult to hide a mile-long train whose tanker cars carry placards stating their contents. There is simply no reason folks who care to know about the location or prevalence of oil trains shouldn't be able to find out.

What's happened with oil trains in Oregon is a classic case of cart-before-the-horse. The trains already are passing through our communities, elevating unknown risk to Oregonians and sensitive lands and waterways. But only now are officials attempting to make the railroads' self-reporting more consistent and comprehensive so that affected communities can be fully prepared and pertinent agencies, such as DEQ, successful. Disclosure, for the asking, should be the order of the day.