On July 6, 2013, a runaway train carrying 72 tank cars loaded with volatile Bakken shale oil derailed and exploded in Lac-Mégantic, a small town in southeastern Québec. It killed 47 people, orphaned 26 children, spilled a record 1.5 million gallons of oil and incinerated the town center. Ten years later, what’s changed?
After Lac-Mégantic, communities like Vancouver blocked new oil train terminals. In 2018, a broad coalition stopped the largest proposed oil train terminal in the U.S.
Yet, in 2022, Portland saw more oil trains than ever before. The Zenith oil train terminal is bringing bomb trains through Vancouver into Portland, risking the health and safety of people where the trains travel at unsafe speeds, with unsafe cars, carrying toxic and flammable fuel.
It can happen here. We all remember the Mosier, Ore., oil train derailment in 2016. The Mosier community was dramatically impacted by the derailment, spill, and fire of a unit train carrying oil — very similar to the train that derailed in Lac-Mégantic. Oregon’s leaders still have decisions to make about Zenith’s oil trains. Vancouver’s elected officials showed them the way to get the job done.
