On Thursday, January 14, dozens of Montanans from across the state will be traveling to Spokane Valley, Wash., to testify against the proposed Tesoro-Savage oil terminal, a Washington-state project that would significantly increase oil train traffic through Montana communities.
No increased oil trains news conference
11:30 a.m.
Thursday, Jan. 14
The XXXX’s by depot on Higgins Avenue
Missoula
Speakers: John Woodland, retired fire chief for Superior
and Kate French, Chair of Northern Plains Resource Council
Members of Northern Plains Resource Council and other Montana groups are making the trip to attend a public hearing on the draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) of the Tesoro-Savage Oil Terminal to be located in Vancouver, Wash. The proposed terminal would be the largest oil terminal in North America.
The Tesoro-Savage project’s draft EIS indicates that if permitted 360,000 more barrels of Bakken crude would be shipped through Montana communities every day. This would mean 8 additional mile-long oil trains per day, increasing air and noise pollution, traffic delays, and impair first responders’ ability to arrive at emergencies. More oil trains also increase the chance for a major explosion or derailment in Montana rail communities.
Some of the defects in the draft EIS include:
· An assumption that all additional train traffic in Montana caused by the project will be routed exclusively along the Hi-Line. As a result, no impacts to Montana’s southern communities, including Missoula, are considered in the draft EIS;
· An exclusion of any Montana rail communities from the Rail Transportation Risk Analysis evaluating the risk to rail communities in the event of a major train derailment, fire, or explosion;
· A failure to fully consider the potential impacts of any crude oil export from the facility. This issue is more critical now that the federal crude oil export ban was lifted at the end of last year.
