The Port of Lewiston netted more than $500,000 from Imperial Oil megaloads in its most recent fiscal year.
The $500,772 figure was released in a recent audit of the port and was pointed out by David Doeringsfeld, the port’s manager.
The number doesn’t include another $396,233 in expenses the port had for the modules of a processing plant under construction in the Kearl Oil Sands of Alberta, Canada. Continue reading
Anti-megaload activist Borg Hendrickson questioned the safety of overlegal Imperial Oil tar sands shipments on U.S. Highway 12 without Idaho State Police escorts, considering the confusing conditions of Imperial Oil/Mammoet transports that caused two recent Highway 95 collisions and of a Weyerhaeuser/Nickel Brothers half-hour delay of a heart-attack victim carried by private vehicle on Highway 287 to the Choteau, Montana, hospital. She noted that the Idaho Transportation Department allows endless revisions of megaload companies’ traffic management plans after accidents that damage private and public property, but the agency never permanently denies permits after cumulative problems arise. Imperial Oil’s subsequent resumption of module travel on Highway 95 after the December 6 crash did not provide the public or press with ample time or copies of safety plan changes to review the outcomes of Mammoet’s internal report on failed safety procedures and the Idaho State Police collision investigation that is compromised by conflicted Mammoet/public payments of trooper salaries. Moscow city police also received $20,000 of ongoing reimbursement for overtime hours spent patrolling megaload protests and crowds that precipitated eight arrests between mid-July and November 1. Latah County sheriffs have not received similar payment responses to their invoices sent to the Imperial Oil contractor Mammoet. For more information, listen to U.S. 12 Business Owners Question Lack of ISP Escort for Upcoming Megaloads and Exxon Hauler Mammoet Pays Moscow $20,000 for Police Overtime Protecting Tar Sands Shipments between 20:25 and 11:07 on the KRFP Radio Free Moscow Evening Report, Mammoet Pays for Police, on Friday, December 16, at http://radiofreemoscow.org/2011/12/20111216/.
Moscow received its first payment from Imperial Oil/ExxonMobil contract hauler Mammoet.
The payment reimburses the city for its costs for staffing police officers to handle crowd control since the oil company began transporting overlegal shipments of refinery equipment through the city in July. Continue reading
The protocol for Imperial Oil megaloads on U.S. Highway 95 changed this week as the shipments received the green light from the Idaho Transportation Department to resume travel.
ITD temporarily suspended permission for the loads to travel after an accident Dec. 6 south of Moscow on Highway 95. Three rigs, including the one involved in the accident, would have been allowed to go Thursday, but they were postponed to an undetermined date because of weather.
When they hit the road, a pilot vehicle will be placed in front of the lead load before it leaves the staging area about a mile south of Moscow, where the rigs create a convoy before entering the city, according to a report from ITD and the Idaho State Police. Continue reading
The plan you see here was released today by the Idaho Transportation Department.
It outlines what steps will be taken to prevent a repeat of last week’s non-inury collision on U.S. Highway 95 involving a megaload.
The story I’m writing for Friday’s paper will have even more information about how ITD, Imperial Oil, and Mammoet, the oil company’s hired hauler, are handling the accident.
Idaho Transportation Department Report
(By Elaine Williams The Lewiston Tribune)
Lend an ear to news about the weather-influenced cancellation of the first Imperial Oil megaloads to move after their December 6 collision on Highway 95 and subsequent revision of their hauler Mammoet’s transportation plan as well as a description of the transport schedule, route, and dimensions of an oversize hydroelectric plant pipe built by Selway Corporation and transported to Snoqualmie Falls, Washington, in U.S. 95 ExxonMobil Tar Sands Shipments Scheduled for Tonight Postponed and Westbound U.S. 12 Megaload Scheduled for Tomorrow Night between 13:08 and 10:39 on the KRFP Radio Free Moscow Evening Report, U.S. 95, on Thursday, December 15, at http://radiofreemoscow.org/2011/12/20111215/.
For broadcast coverage of the false restart of Imperial Oil megaload travel on Highway 95 after the December 6 module collision with a pulled-over mini-van as well as news about a possible Highway 12 transportation project proposed by Harvest Energy for its Alberta tar sands equipment and the postponement of westbound Highway 12 passage of an oversized Selway Corporation pipe for a hydroelectric facility at Snoqualmie Falls, Washington, listen to ExxonMobil Says Tar Sands Shipments Will Resume Through Moscow Thursday Night and Another Company Considering Using U.S. 12 for Megaloads between 16:48 and 12:20 on the KRFP Radio Free Moscow Evening Report, Megaloads to Resume, on Wednesday, December 14, at http://radiofreemoscow.org/2011/12/20111214/.
The driver of a mini-van pulled over by a flagger and hit by the lead megaload at a staging area south of Moscow, Idaho, on November 8 told a local radio station manager/reporter that he sustained minor injuries that have resulted in back and leg pain from the collision characterized by Idaho State Police as a non-injury accident. Although he refused a recorded interview, James Urquidez expressed dismay with his near-fatal experience, the dismissive attitude of megaload facilitators and accident investigators, the Idaho state police, and megaload hauler Mammoet’s delayed compensation for his unusable, totaled vehicle. Listen to Driver Reports Minor Injuries after Being Hit by Megaload Last Week, between 15:12 and 12:29 on the KRFP Radio Free Moscow Tuesday, December 13, Evening Report, Driver Hit by Megaload Injured.
Sure enough, after all the promises that the megaloads posed no problems to those of us who also use the U.S. Highway 95 route, a megaloads driver smashed into a couple of cars. Thankfully, the megaloads didn’t kill anyone this time. According to the Daily News article (December 8), the police blame only the driver of that megaload truck. Continue reading
Question: Where was the Moscow Police Department Tuesday night when the megaload accident happened, and could their presence have helped prevent this accident?
Wait a minute. Didn’t Chief David Duke say the MPD was only able to help (because of resources) on Thursday evenings? Maybe some of the cops who hang out watching those rascally protesters on Washington Street, no matter what night the megaloads run, would be better utilized watching the real danger.
Wild Idaho Rising Tide 