The citizens of Mosier don't have a working sewer system, following Friday's oil train explosion in the midst of the small Columbia River Gorge city. They're unsure if the water they're drinking is safe, which has prompted officials to issue a boil order. And as of Sunday, something around 100 people still weren't able to return to their homes.
Its anything but normal there, but for Union Pacific, which operated the train in Friday's derailment, business continues. The company has resumed train traffic through Mosier, despite pleas from the town to hold off until all oil is removed from the damaged tank cars still beside the tracks, and an investigation is complete into how the incident occurred.
"They have started the trains back up again," Mosier's city council president, Emily Reed, tells the Mercury. "They started running yesterday evening."
According to Reed, a community meeting on the oil explosion and its after effects was just winding up around 8 pm when a Union Pacific train made its way through the city.
That was less than three hours after city officials issued a public plea for the company to hold off on train traffic, partly out of concern that the remaining tanker cars are unsafe and an explosion risk in the event of another derailment. After an emergency meeting Sunday afternoon, the city "passed a motion objecting to Union Pacific's plans to restart train traffic while derailed oil cars, many still full of oil, sit just feet from the tracks in severely damaged condition," read a statement from the city.
The city has asked Gov. Kate Brown and Oregon senators and congressmen to get the oil removed, and determine what went wrong "before any oil train or other high risk train traffic resumes."
But trains are moving through Mosier.
Oil train clean up after derailment in Mosier Oregon. What local officials want to stop. @KGWNewspic.twitter.com/8aL5OJrnYF
— Tim Gordon (@TimGordonKGW) June 6, 2016
The situation reflects the challenge local leaders face when trying to step oil train activity. Late last year, Portland officials passed some of the stoutest fossil fuel restrictions in the country. But when it came to oil trains, they were limited to a symbolic resolution. Interstate commerce laws make it so officials are unable to keep the trains out of city limits.
A Union Pacific spokesperson has not returned a call and email.