from Earth First! News
An explosion struck a natural gas storage facility in Plymouth, Washington.
According to NBC, “Over the police scanners, one first responder said a 1.2 billion cubic foot natural gas container exploded.”
There are reports of hundreds of people being evacuated, including evacuations by bus from the Umatilla school district to the Hermiston convention center.
Highway 14 has been closed, and there are reports of at least one injury.
The storage facility is a stop on the Williams NW natural gas pipeline, and is part of the ‘Washington Expansion’ project set to connect a prospective Oregon LNG terminal in Warrenton via a proposed juncture at Woodland, WA.
Activists with Rising Tide and local non-profits have been fighting the LNG projects throughout the Pacific Northwest, due to their impacts on the climate and the high risk of explosions and other industrial disasters such as the one that occurred today.
