Two cars from a multi-car Union Pacific train traveling through Mosier, Oregon, have caught fire and burned an acre of land, reports the Oregonian. Ten cars derailed altogether. It's unclear if the contents of the derailed cars have emptied into the Columbia River.
Union Pacific has hauled two types of oil through the gorge — a thick, waxy crude from Utah and Bakken crude from North Dakota. In late 2015, the company began moving one mile-long train of Bakken oil each week on the Oregon side of the gorge to Tacoma. It is unclear which type of oil is involved.
The Oregon Department of Transportation has shut down 27 miles of highway and a local K-8 school has been evacuated.
"This a terrible situation," Brett Vandenheuvel, executive director of Columbia Riverkeeper, said in a statement.
Seattle City Council members have long sought emergency derailment plans from railway company BNSF in the event that an oil train derails in downtown Seattle. But without federal regulation, individual cities have little power to influence railroads.
Local activists, however, are trying a different approach: They've started blocking oil trains with their bodies, then argued in court that doing so is necessary in order to stop the greater threats posed by crude oil transportation.
