When you drive along Highway 30 through the industrial area of NW Portland, you witness an amazing contradiction. On the west side of the highway is Forest Park, Portland's premiere urban wilderness area. But on the east of the highway you see potential doom. That six mile stretch of tank farrms, known as the Critical Energy Infrastructure (CEI) Hub contain over 300 million gallons of volatile fossil fuels—90% of all the fuel that serves the entire state of Oregon. Under those six miles is landfill from dredging the river years ago to fill in the wetlands that once lined both sides of the Willamette. And under that fill is the Portland Hills Fault Line. When the big one comes—or even a smaller quake along the Portland Hills Fault—the ground under the tanks will turn to liquid. Then just imagine what happens next.
Today we talk with Multnomah County Commissioner Sharon Meieran, one of the early elected officials in Oregon to recognize that we have a problem here. Since then she has been working with community groups to find a way out of this potential nightmare.
If you live in Multnomah County, you can reach out to your county commissioner to let them know your concerns about the CEI Hub:
Jessica Vega Peterson, County Chair: mult.chair@multco.us
Sharon Meieran, District 1: district1@multco.us
Susheela Jayapal, District 2: district2@multco.us
Diane Rosenbaum, District 3: district3@multco.us
Lori Stegman, District 4: district4@multco.us
- KBOO