PORTLAND, Ore. — Along the Willamette River in Portland's northwestern reaches, hundreds of huge drum-shaped tanks sit, filled with thousands of gallons of fuel. Known as the "Critical Energy Infrastructure Hub," or CEI Hub, the 6-mile expanse is a big problem for anyone concerned about the impact of a major earthquake — the likes of which the Pacific Northwest is long overdue to experience.
When and if a big enough earthquake hits, it could effectively liquefy the soil beneath those tanks, like sand on a beach inundated by waves, undermining the tanks and spilling the fuel.
Experts have estimated the potential spill to be between 100 and 200 million gallons, with as much as 82 million gallons spilling directly into the Willamette.
The most obvious concern is that such a spill would be an environmental disaster, potentially rivaling the Deepwater Horizon spill into the Gulf of Mexico back in 2010 — still the largest oil spill in U.S. history at roughly 134 million gallons.
And things could get a lot worse than a spill alone. If any of the fuel ignites, there is the potential for explosions or major fires, not to mention the impact of toxic fumes. Then, there's the loss of that fuel itself at a time when the region could sorely need it; the CEI Hub holds 90% of liquid fuel used in the state of Oregon, and all of the fuel used at the Portland International Airport.
The slow road to regulation
With all of the risks in mind, there's been mounting pressure over the years to ensure that the CEI Hub tanks are as safe and secure as possible, and that the companies operating them will be held accountable for any breaches.
The city of Portland has attempted multiple times to regulate those fuel companies, with mixed results. Last year, the state of Montana and fuel industry groups filed a federal lawsuit against the city over its latest attempt. A U.S. District Court judge later tossed the original lawsuit but gave the plaintiffs an opening to file an amended complaint, which they did in August.
Regulation has been more successful at the state level, with Oregon lawmakers in 2022 passing a bill requiring that the fuel companies perform assessments of their facilities for seismic vulnerability and create mitigation plans to minimize risk in case of a magnitude 9 earthquake.
This week, Multnomah County stepped up to the plate. Commissioners are considering an ordinance mostly concerned with liability — ensuring that if a spill does happen, the fuel companies will be able to foot the bill.
The effort hinges on something known as "risk bonding." Right now, it would make sure that the companies which own these fuel tanks have either the insurance or the funds necessary to pay for the cost of a cleanup if a catastrophe at the scale of the "big one," a major earthquake along the Cascadia Subduction Zone, were to happen.
Experts who analyzed the hub estimate that cleanup after an earthquake-caused spill could cost anywhere from $350 million and $2.6 billon.
'This could literally happen tomorrow'
Commissioner Sharon Meieran tried to get the ordinance passed at the last Multnomah County board meeting before Thanksgiving. She told KGW that while there are federal and state regulation requiring companies to clean up spills, like the federal Oil Pollution Act, they have gaps and loopholes.
"The problem is, for example with the OPA ... the companies need to have a trust fund available. They have to have resources available to do this," Meieran explained. "But there is an 'act of God' clause so that the OPA would not necessarily apply in the event of, say, an earthquake."
The ordinance received quite a bit of support during public comment; Jeremy, who lives in close proximity to the CEI Hub, urged commissioners to pass it.
"I'm here today to ask how much would it cost to replace my life? How do you assign a dollar amount capable of returning the almost 3,000 of my neighbors, friends, and family that will be eviscerated after the Cascadia earthquake causes the Critical Energy Infrastructure hub to explode?" he asked. "How much money will it take to rectify the lives of the hundreds of thousands in our region who will be injured and endure untold exposure risks in the explosion's aftermath?"
But some commissioners not convinced. The board voted down the ordinance in November. Commissioner Lori Stegmann said she wanted to support the ordinance, but she'd heard too many concerns about it being incomplete as-written.
"I am deeply disappointed that this policy is not further along than it is today. Many questions remain unanswered, and I cannot, in good conscience, support a policy that has not been thoroughly vetted," Stegmann said. "Some of the testimony that we've received even from folks here today that are very supportive raise some really valid questions. We've also received testimony regarding the lack of engagement from BIPOC community members, so I'd like to see more engagement there.
"We all just received a budget report; we're going to have a $20 million deficit going into our upcoming budget. I have questions about the fee recovery and what that looks like to pay for a policy person and all of the research that will need to be done in order to implement an ordinance like this."
Stegmann also expressed worry that the fuel companies would pass on their increased costs to consumers.
On the other hand, Commissioner Julia Brim-Edwards said that addressing the CEI Hub is just as urgent as addressing homelessness.
"Absolutely, if you look at the potential impact, this could be the most critical issue that we work on," Brim-Edwards said. "I've been around public processes a long time, and frankly ... if you want to kill something, the easiest way to do it is delay or not to take an action. And I think that's a very dangerous thing for this commission to do, or to say that we are searching for the perfect (solution), which we are never going to get to."
Meieran, whose term on the commission ends by January, said she wanted to get the ordinance passed while she was still in office — and that changes could always be made down the road to improve it.
"Passing what exists in this amended ordinance on the first reading today means we have taken a step and demonstrated our intent to act, that we see and hear the community, that we understand the urgency that this could literally happen tomorrow," Meieran said during the Nov. 21 meeting. "And we don't want to look back — like we're doing, some of us ... maybe with the EMS situation — and say, 'Wow, we could have done this sooner, and we didn't.'"
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The ordinance has support from incoming Portland City Council members who will be representing District 4, where the hub is located. That includes Mitch Green, an economist who said that an economic approach to the problem is a good start.
"You can't put a price on ecological disaster, and you can't put a price on the risk to life safety of people who live in Linnton and, you know, even District 2 neighborhoods across the river," Green said. "And so, we also need to be taking, simultaneously, steps to require reinforcements or relocation of these tanks. And that's a kind of a physical process that takes a little bit longer, and there's different approaches to dealing with that. And I don't see the risk funding avenue as competing with those. I think it's sort of the first step, along with many others, that we'll have to take to deal with this."
Ultimately, the ordinance failed to pass in November on a deadlocked two-two vote. County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson was not present at the meeting. Hers would have been the tie-breaking vote.
"Washington state has already done this. We're not inventing this. And 18 months of sort of working on it and getting the details down was built into the ordinance," Meieran said. "So literally there is nothing that would be would have been lost by passing this."
According to Meieran, the board agenda was too full to bring the ordinance up again this month. The board and its new members will need to decide whether to bring it back up in January, without Meieran there to weigh in directly. She said she's talked to the incoming commissioners and they seemed supportive of the ordinance.
KGW reached out to the Western States Petroleum Association for the fuel companies' perspective, but they did not immediately respond to a request for comment.