oil train through Rainier

A mile-long oil train ambles down A Street in Rainier within a few feet of cars. The line is Oregon's most heavily traveled oil train route.

(Roger Werth / The Daily News)

With three loaded trains moving weekly, the rails from Portland to an oil terminal near Clatskanie are Oregon's most heavily traveled oil train route.

Newly released documents show that the bulk of Oregon's oil trains filled with volatile North Dakota crude pass along the 60-mile corridor between Portland and Global Partners' terminal near Clatskanie. Portland and Western Railroad hauls them along the Columbia River, through Scappoose, St. Helens and Rainier.

BNSF Railway Co. moves one train every two weeks through Central Oregon, along the Deschutes River, through Bend and Klamath Falls, heading south to the Bay Area.

While the Washington side of the Columbia River Gorge is the Pacific Northwest's major crude-by-rail artery, with 18 oil trains weekly, it still remains unclear how much oil moves on Oregon's side of the gorge.

The reports released Thursday only disclose where oil from North Dakota moves. That crude, from the Bakken region, has been implicated in a string of high-profile explosions since last summer, including an accident last July that killed 47 people in Canada.

The federal Department of Transportation, which required the notifications, didn't mandate them for oil from other regions. Utah oil moves along Oregon's side of the gorge. But the railroad moving it, Union Pacific, didn't have to provide the reports, drawing protests from U.S. Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, both Oregon Democrats.

The senators say crude oil poses environmental and safety risks no matter where it comes from.

The Oregon state fire marshal's office needed to be cajoled to make the reports public.

Railroads submitted the documents to the state in early June. The companies sought to keep the information secret, saying federal law protected it from disclosure. But federal officials said there was no reason for it to be confidential, and railroads later withdrew their protest.

While California and Washington officials posted the documents online, Oregon balked, saying it would cost five media outlets a total $218.75 for copies.

The Oregonian on Wednesday publicized the state's continuing delay and requested that the state publish the information on its website – for free.

Within 24 hours, the state fire marshal's office released the information and said it would post the reports online. The reports aren't online yet, however.

The office deleted information from the reports that Washington had already released, keeping secret what are known as "shipping papers," which show how much oil moved in each train car and what company owned it.

Oregon officials claimed federal law prohibited its release.

-- Rob Davis