Oregon’s Gasoline Tanks Vulnerable To Quakes
Everyday as I drive my Lincoln kids home, north on highway 30 toward the St. Johns Bridge, I wonder if those big tank structures near Linnton contain gasoline. An article in the May “NW Examiner” issue has a front page article that answers my question: “Oregon’s entire gasoline supply is stored in an earthquake danger zone in Northwest Portland.”
According to the article those tank farms sit right on the Portland Hills Fault. They are vulnerable In case of a major quake. Some of those storage tanks not only are 100 years old, but could not withstand a major quake. They are also built on soils that would liquify.
The primary risk is rupture in a quake resulting from movement in the Cascadia Subduction Zone that has the potential of up to a magnitude 9.0 earthquake. The Portland Hills Fault pictured above “is about 30 miles in length and runs north/south through the heart of downtown Portland to the north end of Forest Park.” It’s the second biggest risk because it runs directly underneath the tank farm and can generate magnitude 6.0 quakes.
Heck, there’s no absolutely safe place to live. Some have heat and humidity, hurricanes, tornados, bugs, illegal aliens, floods and a foot of rain in a day. We don’t have earthquakes very often, not like California. We just have scientists that warn us about our scary future.
[…] Portland has a similar fault line at the base of the west hills extending out past the St. Johns bridge and along that fault is where we store our gasoline! […]