West Coast States Meet to Share Spill-response Efforts

SEATTLE (AP) — Washington and Oregon environmental regulators said Tuesday that regional coordination and planning exercises such as drills aided their response to the fiery train derailment along the Columbia River earlier this month.

The Northwest officials briefed their counterparts from other states on the June 3 train accident in Mosier, Oregon, at the annual meeting of the Pacific States/British Columbia Oil Spill Task Force.

The task force, consisting of members from British Columbia, Alaska, Washington, Oregon, California and Hawaii, collects and shares data on oil spills and works together on oil spill prevention projects. They were in Seattle to update each other on their spill response efforts and other projects.

Dale Jensen, Washington's Ecology spills program manager, says the Oregon derailment is a reminder of how vulnerable the region is to oil spills and underscores the need for states and federal agencies to continue to work together to improve spill prevention and response.