On June 3 of last year, an oil train derailed in the Columbia River Gorge in the little town of Mosier. Several cars caught fire and burned for 14 hours. If the normal Gorge winds had been blowing that day, Mosier would been destroyed, like Lac-Megantic.
On the first anniversary of this near disaster, hundreds of people gathered at the Mosier Community School to call for stopping oil trains from traveling through the Gorge. On this episode of Locus Focus, we listen to speeches from that rally. We’ll hear from Ryan Rittenhouse with Friends of the Gorge; Carina Miller, Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Tribal Council Member; JoDe Goudy, Chairman of the Tribal Council of the Yakama Nation; Vancouver City Councilmember Alishia Topper, Tacoma City Council member Ryan Mello, Mosier Physician Dr. Maria McCormick and former Hood River City Council member Laurent Picard. Then we go down the river where we’ll hear more speeches by Mosier City Council Member Acasia Berry and Cathy Sampson-Kruse, member of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation.
- KBOO