BNSF, Union Pacific reluctant to provide info on oil trains

BNSF Railway and Union Pacific Railroad have asked Washington state officials to keep information about oil train shipments away from the public.

The companies sent confidentiality agreements to the state on May 30 aiming to restrict information on the shipments to emergency response groups for planning purposes only. The companies called the information “security sensitive.”

Disclosure about oil train movements arose last month when the U.S. Department of Transportation issued an emergency order requiring railroad companies to notify state officials by June 6 about the volume, frequency and county-by-county routes of trains carrying 1 million or more gallons of crude oil from the Bakken region of North Dakota, Montana and parts of Canada.

The order came in the wake of several dramatic oil train accidents that have drawn attention to the shipments. BNSF hauls long oil trains over Marias Pass, along the Middle Fork of the Flathead River and the southern border of Glacier National Park, and through the small towns of Columbia Falls and Whitefish.

Federal transportation officials say they expect states “to treat this data as confidential, providing it only to those with a need-to-know, and with the understanding that recipients of the data will continue to treat it as confidential.” That includes emergency workers who need access to the information to form response plans.

Mark Stewart, a spokesman for the Washington Military Department’s Emergency Management Division, said restricting that information violates the state’s public records law, so the state has not signed the confidentiality documents sent by the railroad companies.

Stewart said Washington’s Emergency Response Commission sought legal advice and determined that the agreements “require us to withhold the information in a manner that’s not consistent with the state public records act.”

The commission instead presented alternative agreements to the railroad companies, noting that the information may be subject to disclosure. That proposal said a state official would notify the railroads if the public sought the information so the companies could seek a protective order or other remedy.

BNSF Railway spokeswoman Courtney Wallace said the company is reviewing the commission’s proposal. She said BNSF would comply with the federal order but believes the information is “considered security sensitive and confidential, intended for people who have ‘a need to know’ for such information, such as first responders and emergency planners.”

Union Pacific Railroad told Washington state officials it doesn’t transport crude oil from the  Bakken at the federal order’s reporting threshold. Company spokesman Aaron Hunt said Union Pacific moves 163,000 carloads of crude oil across its national network, and less than 1 percent comes through Washington.

In Washington, crude oil shipments went from zero in 2011 to 17 million barrels in 2013, according to rough state estimates. Those numbers are likely to increase if proposed oil terminals at the ports of Grays Harbor and Vancouver and at the state’s refineries get built.  

Earlier this year, some state lawmakers and groups unsuccessfully pushed for legislation that would give the public information about oil train movements through their communities.