Getting ready for humongous trains

Columbia County communities looking for ways to cope with more rail traffic, longer trains

By Lona Pierce

Lona Pierce / South County Spotlight

A Portland Western Railroad locomotive crosses the Milton Creek bridge approaching Columbia Boulevard in St. Helens.

With the prospect of at least four unit trains (two each way) traveling the length of Columbia County every week, local residents have recently been paying a lot more attention to rail traffic rolling through their towns.

Cascade Grain will be receiving corn from the Midwest in 110-car unit trains every three and a half days to produce ethanol at Port Westward near Clatskanie (See March 12 Spotlight for full story). The very first full-length test train came through on Sunday, April 13. According to John Speight, vice president of marketing and sales at Portland and Western Railroad, the train turnaround time will be 32 hours maximum between Port Westward and the Vancouver, Wash., station. There is no precise schedule. Speight said the test train took a shade over eight minutes to pass a single point going through the city of St. Helens.

Many residents are worried that long trains might trap them on the wrong side of the tracks during an emergency. There are senior citizen facilities and schools that will be cut off from Highway 30 while the trains are traveling through, not to mention all the homes and businesses. The track has very few underpasses or overpasses for the length of the A line, also called the Astoria line, which runs generally along the Columbia River through Columbia County. Vehicle traffic must stop at all but one rail crossing on public roads when a train is coming through.

Only Columbia City has a bridge that passes over the tracks, on L Street. There are a handful of private driveways that have their own underpasses, as well. Those few privileged homeowners are unaffected by rail traffic, if you ignore the noise and vibration factors. Some of the busiest roads that cross the tracks, such as at Gable Road in St. Helens by Safeway and Wal-Mart, back up in all directions until the trains pass through. Safety arms and flashing lights are at major rail crossings.

Division Chief Ron Youngberg of Columbia River Fire and Rescue said they have a “wait and see” attitude toward the 110-car unit trains. Unit trains are those that carry a single commodity from the point of origin. So far he never experienced a problem of being delayed when responding to an emergency call because of trains, Youngberg said, and he isn’t expecting any. “We have fire stations on both sides of the track,” he noted, and law enforcement personnel are scattered all over the county at any one time. There should always be someone able to answer an emergency on either side of the track.

Fire Chief Mike Greisen of Scappoose said trains have not been a problem. He has figured out that, at 10 miles per hour, the corn unit trains will be on the tracks through town for a total of approximately a half hour per week. “We already have delays,” said Greisen, “because we don’t have enough resources.” Delays from a train on occasion will be nothing new.

When they get multiple emergency calls, which happen about 25 percent of the time, said Greisen, they may have to send personnel back from the first emergency to the station for more equipment. Response times can take 10 minutes longer during multiple emergencies.

Greisen has no plans to store emergency equipment on both sides of the track in Scappoose. The only time he sees potential for a blockage is if there is a vehicle accident at the intersection of Highway 30 and Crown Zellerbach Road. During such an event the fire department might move an emergency vehicle to the east side of the tracks in case a train comes.

Cascade Grain will get a heads-up from Portland and Western when a train is due to arrive at the plant in a few hours, but by then the train is well on its way from the P & W Vancouver station. Both Greisen and Youngberg said they have no plans at present to ask for notification from the railroad when a unit train is on the way.

Trains are limited to around 25 miles per hour on most of the track, and down to 10 miles per hour through Scappoose, St. Helens, and Rainier. Greisen said it will take about nine minutes for the 110-unit trains, about a mile long, to travel past any one point in town. Upgrades of $25 million to the tracks are coming soon, and a federal grant is helping to replace 40,000 railroad ties. Federal rail money is often distributed through congressional earmarks. Once an upgraded rail is laid, the time it takes a long unit train to pass any one point through the towns will be reduced to three and a half minutes. Long unit trains don’t stop once they get started on the A line because there are no sidetracks large enough for them to pull over.

Speight said that Portland & Western has no plans to move freight trains through the county any faster than 25 miles per hour. It would be far too expensive to upgrade the rails for faster trains. The improvements to the track will be concentrated between Vancouver and Port Westward, since there is little traffic beyond that location.

The Cascade Grain unit trains are in addition to present rail traffic. According to Speight, 20,000-plus rail cars already use the A Line annually, with more than 8,000 cars alone carrying logs for Teevin Bros. Inc in Rainier. Trains also serve Boise, U.S. Gypsum, Wauna, Dyno Nobel, and other customers. Typical trains are 50 cars or less, with a few longer trains. Improved tracks will likely attract additional train-related business.

Government officials consider rails to be an important arm of transportation, along with public roads, airports, and the Columbia River. Each serves economic growth. As such, they want infrastructure to keep up with traffic, not only so things don’t get bogged down or in poor shape, but for safety reasons, as well. Columbia County Commissioner Joe Corsiglia said that potential businesses go where the transportation system is good. Shortline companies help pay for rail improvements through taxes, fees and matching funds.

There is no regular train traffic past the Wauna mill at present, but additional trains to Tongue Point just east of Astoria may operate in the near future. Long-range possibilities may include a commuter train. The county is about ready to hire a consultant to finish its rail corridor safety study, and Scappoose completed their study in 2002.

In anticipation of increasing trains coming through, city administrators are working with Portland & Western Railroad and the Oregon Department of Transportation to try to solve problems related to rail traffic while still manageable. The biggest impediment is funding. While state and federal governments support rail improvements with grants and loans, towns affected by the trains won’t likely be getting funding to build road overpasses for 20 years or more. Crossing Safety Manager Charles Kettenring of ODOT said the agency has no plans to fund overpasses in Columbia County. “In a few months people probably won’t even notice the unit trains,” he said. Still, the cities are planning for overpasses as train traffic grows.

Scappoose:

City Manager Jon Hanken said that the most likely places for an overpass would be at West Lane Road north of town, or at Johnson’s Landing Road to the south. There simply is no room available closer in, such as the Havlik intersection in the works, because of the huge amount of land required to lay it out so a truck can cross. An overpass would cost $30-40 million.

St. Helens:

City Planner Skip Baker said “The favorite spot proposed for an overpass is the end of West Street, hopping onto Pittsburg Road.” Baker said it would take up a huge amount of room, and estimates it would cost $10-20 million. The topography there, with a slight dip, is favorable. No money is being set aside for planning such a project.

Rainier:

City Administrator Lars Gare said that Rainier has little chance for an overpass because the city isn’t very large. The track runs down the middle of A Street in one section of town, and a senior center, new homes, and businesses can be cut off from the highway. There is only one crossing with a safety arm. “The city is having brainstorming meetings to find solutions on a whole bunch of issues,” said Gare. P & W is proposing the closing of multiple rail crossings on A Street in exchange for three additional safety arms, and the city would fund curbs and paving.

Since funding is not forthcoming anytime soon in Columbia County to make crossing the tracks easier, Corsiglia is promoting the idea of “sink funds,” where ODOT annually sets aside a small percentage for overpass funding. Then, in 10 years or so the money will be available to at least start feasibility studies and engineering. “We need to start preparing now for overpasses,” Corsiglia said. “There is no reason ODOT can’t do the studies, especially when you go down the Sunset Highway and see all kinds of overpasses, and sound-proofing and retaining walls. Years ago my dad -- when he was mayor – was pushing for an overpass. We need to push ODOT every shape, way, and form to make it happen.” Corsiglia added that residents can help with the effort by contacting public officials.

First Cascade Grain Corn Train Passes Through County

by Deborah Steele Hazen

The Clatskanie Chief

April 17, 2008

The first of the 110-car unit trains bringing corn to the new Cascade Grain ethanol plant traveled through Columbia County on Sunday, April 13, and arrived at the Port Westward Energy Park north of Clatskanie without incident.

Sally Jones, administrator of the Columbia 9-1-1 Communications District, reported Tuesday that as far as she was aware there were no problems associated with the train's progress through the county.

Cascade Grain's logistics coordinator notified 9-1-1 of the time the train was scheduled to leave the Portland area, and 9-1-1 relayed the information to public safety agencies along the route.

After unloading the corn at Cascade Grain, the empty train made the return trip in the early morning hours of Tuesday.

Port of St. Helens board of commissioners president Robert Keyser reported that the corn trains will be traveling at 10 mph inbound and outbound for the next few weeks instead of the maximum of 25 mph at which other trains travel on the Portland & Western (P&W) line between Portland and Wauna - even trains as long as the corn trains.

After a week or two of inspections by the railroad, it is hoped to speed up the outbound (empty) trains to 25 mph, but the inbound loaded trains will be restricted to 10 mph until improvements to the tracks can be made - hopefully with ConnectOregon 2 grant monies, Keyser said.

The slower travel will increase the time the train will pass a particular point up to 12 to 13 minutes, rather than the eight minutes that had been anticipated, Keyser said.

He also noted that the P&W railroad officials confirmed to him this week that trains with 100-plus cars outbound from Rainier towards Portland have been running "occasionally," and from St. Helens towards Portland "fairly routinely" for the past several years. Thus, trains as long as the Cascade Grain trains are not new to the county.

Cascade Grain is now in a testing phase, and a few more unit trains are expected between now and early June, when company officials expect to complete testing and go into full production.

When the plant is operating at full capacity, approximately two round-trip corn trains are expected per week.

Port Westward Progress Report Highlights Port Meeting in Clatskanie

The Clatskanie Chief

March 6, 2008

by Deborah Steele Hazen

A report on progress at the Port Westward Energy Park near Clatskanie, including an update on the Cascade Grain ethanol plant, and news of a possible biodiesel plant, highlighted a meeting of the Port of St. Helens (POSH) board of commissioners held at the Community Education Center in Clatskanie last Wednesday, Feb. 27.

Ken McFarland, Cascade Grain Products operation manager, reported to the port commission and the approximately 20 members of the public in attendance that construction on the ethanol plant is now at the peak of manpower with over 400 workers at the site. "We're going through commissioning and check-out of equipment, breaking-in equipment, testing motors, tanks and lines. All the main structures are built, and the final details are the focus at this point."

The rail facilities being rebuilt at Port Westward to accommodate the trains that will bring corn to be made into alcohol - which is then "denatured" by the addition of gasoline into ethanol for fuel additives or fuel - is now progressing "phenomenally" after "we struggled a bit" during the winter months, McFarland said.

Two train cars are scheduled to arrive at the plant site next week, he said, as a test. Then 20 cars later in the month. In mid-April the first 110-car "unit train" full of corn will arrive, with another one in late April.

Cascade Grain expects "to start grinding corn for alcohol" on May 5, he said, and will operate at a reduced rate of production while performance tests are conducted during the last week of May and the first week of June. We should be at 100 percent capacity by June 6, McFarland said.

Thirty-eight permanent employees have been hired and were at work at the plant site as of last week. Nine were expected to start this week, with the final two starting within the next two weeks. The employees come from Clatskanie, Rainier, Svensen, Longview and Winlock, and the one from Winlock is planning to move to Clatskanie, McFarland said.

"The only jobs that have been imported (from outside the area) are mine and the production supervisor. All the rest are local and are very talented. I'm tickled to death with the quality of people we've gotten. The people here are head and shoulders above my experience in the Midwest."

McFarland noted that Cascade Grain has signed a contract with Praxair, which will start building a CO2 plant next to Cascade Grain next year. The plant will take a portion of the CO2 - which is a by-product of the ethanol-making process - will clean it, compress it, liquify it and sell it to the beverage and food industry, and for semi-conductors.

Columbia County Commissioner Rita Bernhard asked if there was a possibility for emergency response agencies along the train route from Portland to Port Westward to be notified when one of the trains is going through.

McFarland said that Cascade Grain would be receiving three-hour notification of the arrival of a train - one approximately every 3 1/2 days - and he would be happy to work with the county, communities and emergency responders to provide notifications. "We can do that."

"That would be a real advantage if communities know," Bernhard responded.

Port Commissioner Robert Keyser remarked that he had stood in downtown Rainier and counted 80-car trains, and had been told that 130-car trains sometimes travel on the Portland and Western railroad between Rainier and Portland. With, Cascade Grain's two trains a week (each way), "I don't think you're hardly going to notice it," Keyser said. "People will be delayed less by the trains than they are in traffic" during commuting times in St. Helens and Scappoose.

POSH executive director Gerald Meyer gave some general information on Port Westward, which the Port of St. Helens has owned since the mid-1960s, after it was decommissioned as the Beaver Army ammunition depot. It is located at river mile 53 on the Columbia, north of Clatskanie, and is comprised of 904 acres. Portland General Electric assumed the lease on 853 acres of that property in the early 1970s and operates its Beaver (built in 1974) and Port Westward (started production last year) generating plants there. PGE cooperated with POSH in subleasing the property for the Cascade Grain facility, but there remain over 400 acres yet to develop, including the 51 acres that are not under lease to PGE.

The facilities at Port Westward include a 1,250 ft. dock - "a great facility that we've offered to share with PGE and Cascade Grain" - and a 1.3 million barrel tank farm, the largest in the state, Meyer said.

In addition to the new PGE generating plant and Cascade Grain, Summit Power Group has plans for a $1.7 billion integrated gas combined cycle (IGCC) project in which coal is turned into natural gas, and the CO2 from the process is sequestered. "We're excited about that technology and that it may happen in the future," Meyer said.

Tom Fuller, a consultant on Port Westward projects for the port and county noted that $27.4 million worth of infrastructure related to Port Westward is currently under construction or being planned, including $8.3 million in road upgrades, an $8.7 million well system, and approximately $11 million in upgrades to Hermo Road to create a second entrance into the energy park. Those costs are being covered, primarily, under the Port Westward Urban Renewal District, and will be repaid with property taxes from the new industries locating there.

The road and infrastructure improvements include over $2 million on the route through the city of Clatskanie to widen streets, put sidewalks in, improve water and sewer lines, etc. "The urban renewal district, through the county, has invested in Clatskanie as well, because Clatskanie bears the brunt of the growth at Port Westward. We recognize the city for all it's done - it's a critical partner."

The approximately $5.9 million rail system being built on site is being financed by a ConnectOregon state grant, and a loan from the Oregon Economic and Community Development Department. Additionally, Portland and Western Railroad is planning a $25 million upgrade to the track between Portland and Astoria.

"Not only is the urban renewal district a benefit," Meyer remarked, "But Port Westward enjoys some of the lowest power rates in the country, because of the Clatskanie PUD and how it is run. This is something we show our future tenants."

Clatskanie PUD General Manager Greg Booth reported that the PUD had just finished investing about $10.5 million in improvements and transmission lines - including about $7.5 million at the Port Westward site - to serve the industries there.

McFarland said that the PUD had been "extremely cooperative in working with Cascade Grain."

NorthernStar Reports on LNG, Considers Biodiesel

Si Garrett, chief executive officer of NorthernStar Natural Gas, the parent company of the Bradwood Landing LNG (liquefied natural gas) terminal, gave a report on that project.

Garrett said he expected to receive the FERC (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) permits for the plant in eastern Clatsop County this summer, and believes the state permits will be completed in the fourth quarter of this year.

Garrett noted that NorthernStar had worked with POSH to make sure that the proposed pipeline route would not interfere with any of the projects or infrastructure at Port Westward. The pipeline from the proposed Bradwood Landing plant is planned to roughly parallel the Columbia River to Port Westward, where it will cross under the river and travel across Cowlitz County to connect with the Williams pipeline near I-5.

In his presentation Garrett stressed that safety is the company's highest priority, and "it's our job to cause no damage to the environment. I'm not going to say we're not going to cause any, but we spend a great deal of time and money minimalizing all of the environmental issues we have to deal with."

NorthernStar plans on "mitigating much more acreage than we are disturbing on the site," he said. The plan to purchase Svensen Island for a salmon enhancement project is the largest fish habitat improvement project on the Columbia River, he said.

"We hear a lot about the gas we're bringing in going to California," Garret said. "Almost none will. And, that's backed up by three independent studies."

He said the LNG ships are a "bit bigger" than the car carriers that currently transverse the river. The Coast Guard security zones will allow "all identifiable vessels" within the 500 yard security zone. The 200 yard safety zone around the ships while they are docked at Bradwood Landing will not interfere with traffic on the river or close to Clifton channel, where fishing will still be allowed, Garrett said. The security zone doesn't extend onto land, he stated, addressing another of the frequently asked questions.

The ships have double hulls and the LNG tank creates a third barrier. A number of years ago, Garrett said, a fully-loaded LNG ship ran into a sheer rock wall in the Straits of Gibraltar at 19 knots and didn't breach the LNG tanks.

Garrett described himself as a "logical environmentalist."

"You hear a lot about alternative energy. I am an environmentalist myself...I'd like to think we'd use renewables as much as possible. But for the next 10 to 12 years, natural gas is the most benign fuel," other than hydropower and wind, which cannot satisfy the Pacific Northwest's energy needs without supplementation from natural gas.

With alternative fuels in mind, Garrett said, NorthernStar is constructing a Renewable Bio-fuels plant near Beaumont, Texas, and is looking for a site in the Pacific Northwest.

Port Westward is one of the sites it is considering for a bio-fuels plant, Garrett said. The raw material would be soy or palm oil or beef tallow to begin with, he said. But, long term, the investment group is working on a thorn bush which produces an oil, and algae is another future bio-fuel source.

Garrett said he believes within the next three years the technology to use algae for bio-fuel will be available. Algae removes CO2 from the atmosphere, and the byproduct left-over from making bio-fuel can be used as a food supplement or livestock feed.

Lots of Interest

After the meeting, Port Commission Chair Keyser told the Chief: "There is a lot of interest at Port Westward and we are working with all of the prospects right now. The port and PGE are negotiating a development agreement to make it easier to work together to market these properties."