SLO region a high-hazard area for oil train derailment

Linda Haas from Tehachapi doesn’t “get it,” lamenting that when the U.S. “tries to be self-sufficient concerning anything we do with oil, there are protests” (“U.S. needs to be its own well-oiled machine,” March 5).

According to a 2014 interagency report on oil and rail safety, “In California, trains transporting crude oil are expected to travel via the Feather River or Donner Pass to the Bay Area, the Tehachapi Pass to Bakersfield, or into Los Angeles. As a result, they will travel through some of the state’s most densely populated areas, as well as some of the most sensitive ecological areas, since rail lines frequently operate near or over rivers and other sensitive waterways in the state.”

There are serious risks throughout the state from oil by rail, and significant gaps in local emergency response capabilities.

High-hazard areas for derailments are primarily located in the mountains, with at least one such site along every rail route into California. Some high-hazard areas are also located in more urban areas, such as in the San Bernardino-Riverside and San Luis Obispo regions, the report says.

We are currently awash in crude, even with talks of exporting it for the first time since 1970. The issue is not jobs or oil independence — it is public health and safety.

This story was originally published March 8, 2016 at 12:39 AM with the headline "SLO region a high-hazard area for oil train derailment."