LEARN

2012: DOGAMI report (R) “The CEI Hub facilities have infrastructure from about 100 years old, built to no or very antiquated standards…constructed on soils susceptible to liquefaction...” The most critical call to action? “Energy sector companies must pro-actively integrate seismic mitigation into their business practices…”

J. Bauer, W. Burns, I. Madin, Department of Geology and Mineral Industries (DOGAMI)

2015: “The Really Big One” (A) The New Yorker story that got everyone’s attention. A readable and factual account of our reality that the earthquake will devastate the Pacific Northwest.

K.Schulz, The New Yorker

2015: “How We Mapped NW Portland’s ‘Tank Farms’” (R)  How did we get those liquefiable soils? Superb investigative reporting demonstrating exactly how the braided Willamette River was converted for industry.

Tony Schick, Oregon Public Broadcasting

2019: OSSPAC (R) “The CEI Hub is a major threat to safety, environment, and recovery after a CSZ earthquake on par with the 2011 Fukushima nuclear meltdown in Japan ... Owners of privately-owned liquid fuel tanks at the Hub need to be compelled to seismically strengthen their infrastructure.,,"

CEI Hub Mitigation Strategies, Oregon Seismic Safety Policy Advisory Committee (OSSPAC) publication 19-01, 12/31/19

2019: CEI Hub Natural Hazards  (V, R) Fly over the CEI Hub. Hear one of our foremost seismic experts, Jay Wilson, narrate informative slides about the CEI Hub. Learn who has authority over the Hub.

2019:  Linnton Report of Air Quality and Tank Farm Emissions (R) documents all 153 air polluting industries in N and NE Portland.

Linnton Neighborhood Association, Portland Clean Air  

2020: The Disaster (Q) “The concentration of the state's fuel storage in such a perfectly bad location, on liquefiable soils, in a 500-year flood plain, next to the urban wildland interface with limited ingress and egress could hardly be worse. In a major earthquake the CEI hub poses a grave threat to the safety of the surrounding community. It also threatens our environment and the economy on a scale that is difficult to imagine. A major disaster at the CEI hub could hamper life-saving response actions and delay needed assistance by weeks and months due to fuel shortages. Meanwhile that spilled fuel could poison the Columbia River all the way to its mouth. Together, these impacts would economically cripple our stat...” Mike Myers, Director of Portland Bureau of Emergency Management

2021: Oregon’s Critical Energy Infrastructure Hub: A Multi-Billion Dollar Risk (R) Dollars and sense: what would a Cascadia earthquake disaster cost and when will we come to our senses?

Jack Kerfoot, Engineers for a Sustainable Future, PowerPoint Presentation

2021: Linnton Tank Farm Report (R) Addresses hazardous tank farm pollution from the CEI Hub.

Linnton Neighborhood Association, Portland Clean Air

2022: CEI Hub Seismic Risk Analysis. (R) A sobering multi-year 260+ page investigative report of the estimated impacts and costs of The Big One. a 9.0 Cascadia Subduction Zone seismic event.

Multnomah County, Portland Bureau of Emergency Management (PBEM)

2022: Testimony about SB 1567 (Q) “This is a public safety crisis that has the potential to unleash a disaster equal to the Deepwater Horizon spill, only right here in our city, at a cost to lives and our environment that I’m not sure we can even fathom.The time to take notice and wake up to the very real danger is long past. The clock is ticking, and we must take action."

Dacia Grayber - Oregon State Representative, Metro area firefighter, 2/7/2022

2022: Oregon passes SB1567 (L) This bill, provides for the first time ever, agency oversight over the CEI Hub. It requires fuel storage facilities with the capacity to hold over 2 million gallons of fuel to perform earthquake damage risk assessments and implement mitigation plans to minimize risk and protect the health and safety of workers and residents in surrounding communities and the environment. Of 17 facilities covered, 13 are at Hub, 1 is at the PDX airport, and the remaining 3 are in Columbia and Lane Counties.  Rules for asessments and mitigation were unanimously adopted by the Environmental Quality Commission in September 2023.

2022: Once a Braided River (D) Investigative journalism documentary by Barbara Bernstein of KBBO radio that includes interviews with local experts, including Tank the Tanks' Shawn Looney. Transcript also available.   

2022: Methane Gas: Health, Safety, Economic & Climate Impacts (R) All about the liquefied natural gas industry's false promise to give us a 

safe and clean source of energy. Research-based reports related to the Pacific Northwest "to equip elected officials and policy makers, community and business leaders, journalists, and the broader public, so we can all be equipped with the research-backed knowledge we need to safeguard our climate and the health and safety of our communities.”

2022: Regulation coming to Portland Oil Facilities (R) KGW asked the 10 CEI Hub companies, “Have you taken any actions in the last 10 years to reduce risk of tank failure?”

-7 did not respond (BP, Pacific Terminal Services, McCall Oil, Phillips 66, Chevron, Equilon, NW Natural);

-Nu-Star said their “safety record is good”;

-Kinder Morgan, with 167 tanks between multiple sites, said their “4 newest tanks are built to modern safety standards”; records show their newest tanks were replaced in 1944 and 1958 (before there were standards) and one was replaced in 2011

-Zenith Energy reported they had structural evaluations (undated) of containment walls and, of their 4 most vulnerable tanks, with 2 getting “adequate” results and the 2 built to pre-code standards being “within safe limits.” They stated that liquefaction settlement is of low-risk for larger tanks and lateral spreading is not a site hazard. Zenith has 84 tanks total.