A Spokane city council member testified this week at a House hearing in Olympia on oil train safety. At the House Environment Committee, public testimony was held on a Senate bill that has been proposed to address concerns with transport of oil through Washington state.
Spokane city council member Jon Snyder made an appearance at the hearing, and said the proposal did not put enough financial responsibility on the railroads. He cited an incident where a train derailed in Spokane back in the early 90’s adjacent to the interstate freeway.
Snyder: “Had this been an accident involving oil train cars, this would have been a catastrophic accident cutting off our interstate freeway into Spokane county, if something like that would happen it would also threaten our aquifer there at Latah creek, and impact would be devastating for our community”.
Snyder also described the Senate bill as piecemeal, because it did not address concerns with shipping oil by pipeline.
Snyder: “We have one area where a pipeline a city water well, and the Spokane river, and our regional airport, where if we had an incident there, the chain reaction that could be set off would be really terrible.”
The senate bill calls for notification by railroads to the Department of Ecology as to where shipments of oil by rail are headed, and also levy a tax on tank cars that deliver oil to a refinery.
