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Oil Train Protesters Block Tracks To Oregon Shipping Terminal

By Cassandra Profita (OPB)
Sept. 19, 2014 6:45 a.m.
Demonstrators attempting to block the tracks where they expected an oil train to travel en route to a facility near Clatskanie, Oregon.

Demonstrators attempting to block the tracks where they expected an oil train to travel en route to a facility near Clatskanie, Oregon.

Courtesy of Portland Rising Tide

Protesters set up a human-occupied tripod over tracks along a route that follows the Columbia River to a train-to-barge crude oil facility near Clatskanie, Oregon.

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Portland Rising Tide activist Sunny Glover sat on top of the tripod for about nine hours and locked herself to it as police tried to arrest her. Police cut down the tripod one section at a time and arrested Glover around 11:30 Thursday night.

The blockade marked the latest in a series of activist events meant to demonstrate opposition to the expanding volume of oil that's being routed to coastal ports and refineries from North Dakota.

Last month, the Global Partners oil terminal near Clatskanie received a permit from the state of Oregon to increase the volume of crude oil it handles from 50 million gallons a year to 1.8 billion.

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Protesters near the facility on Thursday said they've tried to stop the oil trains in other ways, but that hasn't worked. Several oil train derailments in the past year and a half have caused explosions and fires, raising concerns about public safety along oil-by-rail delivery routes.

"When the crude oil trains began rolling through Columbia County, we had no prior warning," said St. Helens resident Nancy Whitney. "With the close proximity of our towns and particularly our schools and considering the track record of crude oil derailments, my fear is that the potential devastation from leakage or explosion could be astronomical."

Earlier this month, activist group Rising Tide organized another blockade on BNSF train tracks in Everett, Washington. According to Rising Tide organizer Noah Hochman, that blockade stopped an oil train and prevented it from moving for hours.

“This is only the beginning,” he said. “We will continue to blockade until it is financially, logistically, and politically untenable for oil trains to threaten climate and communities.”

The Oregon protest began drawing media attention by mid-afternoon. Later in the day, before any trains had approached, Columbia County sheriff's deputies arrived on the scene.

Anna Richter Taylor, a spokeswoman for the oil-shipping company Global Partners, provided this statement on behalf of the company: "Safety is a priority and we hope this can be resolved swiftly and peacefully to ensure the safety of all in the community."

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