Letter to the Editor:
The City of Portland Planning Commission is about to make safety decisions regarding the Critical Energy Infrastructure (CEI) Hub, a six-mile stretch of fuel tanks on the banks of the Willamette River. In my opinion,the only way to decrease risk at the hub is to start the year with a more rapid fuel drawdown that would reduce hazardous flammable material at the site.
While the Planning Commission is genuinely interested in making the hub safer, its focus on geotechnical solutions for earthquake risk is misplaced. While it is clear from multiple reports that these are necessary, they will not be sufficient, because a 9.0 magnitude earthquake is not a single event. As with other large earthquakes such as the 2011 Tohoku earthquake in Japan, it will be followed by months of large aftershocks.
DEQ is not requiring the operators of the tanks to upgrade them to a sufficiently high seismic risk category that would prevent them from failing in a major earthquake. If these tanks fail, the containment pools around them will be filled with sloshing flammable fuel.
This site is visited by an average of 100 rail tank cars per day. In the event of a major earthquake, they will likely derail, spill and spark. Coupled with the fuel escaping from the failed tanks, this could lead to a large inferno.
Dr. Mark Darienzo, Portland
Retired paleoseismologist
City of Portland Planning Commission will be meeting on March 10, 2026 @ 12:41 PM. On the agenda: the Critical Energy Infrastructure Hub Policy Project. Learn more.
