WA Council of Fire Fighters asks for halt of Bakken crude by rail

In a letter to Washington Governor Jay Inslee, the president of the Washington State Council of Fire Fighters, Dennis Lawson, asked “to prohibit rail transport of Bakken crude through our state until there has been a full investigation into the cause of the Mosier oil train derailment.”

16 tank cars of a Union Pacific train carrying 96 carloads of Bakken crude derailed on June 3 in Mosier, Oregon, en route from New Town N. Dak. to a refinery in Tacoma, Wash.

“The account given by firefighters of the Mosier response and by others who have responded to similar incidents across North America make it clear these fires are exceedingly difficult to extinguish, even under unusually ideal circumstances,” Lawson wrote in the June 8 letter.

Lawson cited the fire fighters’ previously stated position: “In June 2014, delegates at our statewide convention called for an immediate halt to the movement of Bakken crude by rail until there has been a determination that it is safe to transport. Clearly, given the Mosier incident, there has been no such determination.”

You can read the full text of the letter HERE.