"Zenith is one of 11 companies operating at the Critical Energy Infrastructure hub on the Willamette River, a 6-mile stretch along U.S. 30 between the Fremont Bridge and the southern tip of Sauvie Island.
That’s where Zenith offloads and stores fuels before transferring them to ships or trucks bound for refineries, local markets and other destinations. The company doesn’t produce, own or sell the fuels stored in its tanks."
"The Department of Environmental Quality said Thursday that it’s putting the air quality permitting process on hold
for Zenith Energy, a company that offloads and stores fuels at the Critical Energy Infrastructure hub in Northwest Portland.
The surprise announcement comes a day after state regulators conducted an
unannounced inspection at the Zenith facility on the Willamette River
and after revelations that the company was using a
previously undisclosed dock to offload fossil and renewable fuels."
"Zenith has attracted fierce opposition in Portland, with environmental groups
pointing to Zenith’s numerous violations and misleading tactics in recent years.
A new air permit for Zenith would allow the company to continue offloading and storing fuels in Portland."
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"there’s an estimated 26% likelihood of a major earthquake in the next 50 years.
With more than 90% of Oregon’s liquid fuel located at the CEI Hub facilities,
residents want leaders to look into risk mitigation of the tanks or possibly moving them."
"Floods occur with increasing frequency and the hub is in a flood plain on liquefiable soil,” said Nancy Hiser of the Linnton Neighborhood Association.
“Accidents have been alluded to, like the Ohio train derailment, happen.
Human error is always a possibility. The list goes on. It’s a ticking time bomb.”
"The six-mile stretch of tank farms is known as the Critical Energy Infrastructure Hub (or CEI Hub).
A 2020 study commissioned by the City of Portland and Multnomah County found that a Cascadia Subduction Zone Earthquake could indeed spell environmental disaster for this area."
The CEI Hub, as it’s known, is a collection of huge white tanks you see on your right as you head up U.S. Route 30 to Sauvie Island to go berry picking.
There are 630 of them, full of 150 different liquids, including gasoline, diesel and jet fuel.
"in an earthquake, the tanks would likely move around and rupture, spilling gas on land and into the Willamette River.
The lighter fuels would float downstream, the report says, while the heavier ones would settle in the river bottom.
At full capacity, the hub can hold 351 million gallons of fuel,
and 200 million of those gallons could be released in a quake.
That’s about how much oil spewed out of the offshore Deepwater Horizon well after it blew up in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010"
"this isn’t hypothetical.
As WW reported in 2011, it’s not a matter of whether a massive earthquake is going to hit, but when."
Most of the tanks were built before anyone knew that the Northwest faced California-style seismic risks. The average one dates from
1954,
the report says, and they can be upgraded
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