The symposium provided a forum for public and private stakeholders to connect, learn and share best practices in oil train safety.
The Pacific NorthWest Economic Region's (PNWER) Center for Regional Disaster Resilience held the Oil Train Safety Symposium on April 27, 2016 in Lakewood, Wash., at the Clover Park Technical College.
Nearly 200 participants from both public and private sectors, and from across the Pacific Northwest, took part in the day-long event that provided a comprehensive look at safety in the transport of oil by rail from the Midwest to the ports and refineries on the West Coast.
Presentations from 17 speakers gave the audience an overview of oil-by-rail in the region, explained current and proposed oil train safety regulations, reviewed public safety planning for incidents, examined local capabilities for ecological spill response, and gave legislators and public officials a chance to respond.
The symposium provided a unique opportunity for emergency management personnel and industry leaders to meet with more than 20 elected officials and multiple federal regulators. Reporters from KING5 TV, TVWashington, the Seattle Times and KOMONews were also in attendance to learn and conduct interviews.
"The Oil Train Safety Symposium allowed us to bring together a lot of stakeholders from all over the region to meet each other for the first time. We began an important dialog of relationship-building, understanding each other's needs, and sharing our experiences to improve safety for the general public," said Sen. Chuck Winder of Idaho, member of the Senate Transportation Committee and PNWER Transportation co-chair.
Event resources, including speaker presentations, photos and links to media coverage, are available at regionalresilience.org/oil-train-safety-symposium
Media coverage
KING 5 News: Oil train safety symposium draws crowd
Watch full coverage provided by TVW. They video-recorded the entire event and are showing the entire program in six segments.
• Introduction to transportation of oil in the Pacific Northwest
• Oil train safety regulations, current and proposed
• Emergency spill response: planning efforts and local capabilities and capacities to respond
• Ecological spill response
• Public officials and stakeholders respond
Photos are also available on PNWER's Flickr stream.
An event report will be ready and posted soon.
