Moments after a train in Lynchburg, Va. derailed Wednesday, Vancouver City Council member Jack Burkman's social media accounts went wild with the news.
"I learned about it at the time it happened," said Burkman, who has been a vocal opponent of allowing Tesoro Corp. and Savage Companies to build an oil terminal at the Port of Vancouver.
"I'm aghast," Burkman said. "That happened in a downtown; that could be us."
The companies have proposed building what would be the Northwest's largest oil-by-rail transfer terminal, with the ability to handle as much as 380,000 barrels of crude a day.
"They are evacuating, they declared an emergency, oil is going into water," said Burkman of the incident in Virginia. "So, here's a train going downtown, oil going into a river. It's too close to home."
Brett VandenHeuvel, Columbia Riverkeeper's executive director, echoed Burkman's sentiments.
"Recently, oil companies began an unprecedented experiment of shipping huge volumes of oil by trains. The experiment has failed, as shown dramatically by yet another exploding train," VandenHeuvel wrote on his blog after the explosion Wednesday. "We need to move beyond being shocked and calling for another investigation."
Todd Coleman, CEO, of the Port of Vancouver, said he's been lobbying for new safety regulations for handling crude oil. He would like to see stricter standards for the type of rail cars allowed to transport oil and regulations with protocols, such as speed, brakes, safety inspections.
"Those trains are passing through our community today, regardless of whether we have a new oil terminal at the port," he said. "We need to make sure this industry comes up to speed and safety handling this type of commodity or any commodity of this sort, of a hazardous nature."
-- Lauren Dake, Columbian staff writer