Sacramento Officials Kept in Dark About Rail Facility Crude Transfers

"SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Since at least last September, trains carrying tank cars filled with crude oil have rolled into the the former McClellan Air Force base. Workers have transferred the oil, including some volatile Bakken crude, from trains to tanker trucks, which take it to Bay Area refineries.

Until this week, Sacramento’s InterState Oil ran the crude operation without a required permit. Local fire and emergency officials who would be called upon to respond in case of a spill or fire weren’t informed it was happening.

Jorge DeGuzman, supervisor of permitting for the Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District, said an inspector first discovered in the fall of 2012 that InterState Oil was unloading ethanol from rail cars at McClellan without a permit. The company then applied for a permit and received it in October 2012."

Curtis Tate and Tony Bizjak report for the McClatchy Washington Bureau March 29, 2014.

SEE ALSO:

"Officials Not Keeping Track of Oil Trains" (Cincinnati Enquirer)