This bill summary was last updated January 29, 2025.
Portland’s Critical Energy Infrastructure (CEI) hub is located along a 6 mile stretch of the Willamette River, northwest of downtown. The CEI hub is a storage site for approximately 90% of Oregon’s liquid petroleum and biofuels, about 360 million gallons in all, but it is located on unstable soil and represents a major hazard in case of a large earthquake.
Previously, SB 1567 (2022) created a Seismic Risk Mitigation Fund to support seismic risk assessments and reviews, and to provide grants and other assistance to owner/operators in the CEI hub. However, as authorized the Fund had limited scope and could not be used for some other purposes now thought to be useful for disaster prevention and resilience.
This bill expands the scope of activities that the Seismic Risk Mitigation Fund can pay for. The Fund would become available to support spill prevention and resilience activities by individuals, businesses and local and state government agencies. Specifically, funds could also be used to plan and prepare for fires arising from earthquakes, and for emergency response and evacuation route planning. Some funds could also be transferred to the Oregon Department of Emergency Management to support earthquake early detection and alert activities.