Portland officials detail potential havoc that would be unleashed on city by earthquake, oil spill

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Crude oil tank cars pictured at Zenith Energy’s terminal in Northwest Portland. Mark Graves/The OregonianMark Graves

Portland area officials are sounding the alarm on a potential nightmare scenario in which a major Pacific Northwest earthquake triggers one of the largest oil spills in US history — and seeking ways to diminish the scale of the catastrophe.

A massive earthquake that is widely expected to strike off the coast of Oregon would unleash millions of gallons of fossil fuels into the Willamette and Columbia rivers, causing deadly fires and cost billions of dollars to mitigate, a report commissioned by the city of Portland and Multnomah County and published this week shows.

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