Despite Rise in Spills, Hazardous Cargo Rides Rails in Secret

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Hat tip, the misc.transport.rail.americas Google group: NY Times on Secret Hazardous Materials.

Despite Rise in Spills, Hazardous Cargo Rides Rails in Secret

By JAD MOUAWAD APRIL 15, 2014

Jodi Ross, town manager in Westford, Mass., did not expect she would be threatened with arrest after she and her fire chief went onto the railroad tracks to find out why a train carrying liquid petroleum gas derailed on a bridge in February. ... But as they reached the accident site northwest of Boston, a manager for Pan Am Railways called the police, claiming she was trespassing on rail property. The cars were eventually put back on the tracks safely, but the incident underlined a reality for local officials dealing with railroads. ... “They don’t have to tell us a thing,” Ms. Ross said. “It’s a very arrogant attitude.”

American railroads have long operated under federal laws that shield them from local or state oversight and provide a blanket of secrecy over much of their operations. But now a rapid rise in the number of trains carrying crude oil — along with a series of derailments and explosions — has brought new concern about the risks of transporting dangerous cargo by rail. ... Local and state officials complain that they receive very little information about when hazardous materials are shipped through their communities or how railroads pick their routes. Federal interstate commerce rules give them little say in the matter and railroads are exempted from federal “right to know” regulations on hazardous material sites.

Under pressure to act, the Transportation Department said in February that railroads had agreed to apply the same routing rules to oil trains that they already apply to other hazardous materials, such as explosives, radioactive materials and poisonous substances like chlorine.
....

The National Transportation Safety Board recently recommended that railroads “avoid populated and other sensitive areas” when shipping hazardous materials, something they are not required to do today.

Aftermath of an oil train accident in Casselton, N.D. this year. Credit Jim Wilson/The New York Times

DU has had some earlier threads about this:

Cities Grapple With Oil-Train Safety

U.S. freight railroads, USDOT launch industry wide crude by rail safety initiative

Coming up next week: the National Transportation Safety Board is holding a two-day conference on this very subject:

Rail Safety Forum: Transportation of Crude Oil and Ethanol

April 22-23, 2014
The forum is scheduled from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm each day.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, April 22 and 23, 2014 the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) will convene a forum titled, "Rail Safety: Transportation of Crude Oil and Ethanol." The forum is free and open to the public. No registration is required. The forum is scheduled to run from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm each day.

The forum will address rail safety, specific to the transportation of crude oil and ethanol. Crude oil and ethanol transportation by rail has seen phenomenal growth in North America over the last decade, altering the way these flammable liquids are transported. Trains made up predominately, if not entirely, of crude oil and ethanol cars, consisting of DOT-111 general-purpose tank cars and many thousands of barrels of liquid, have become increasingly common. A number of rail accidents, both in the United States and Canada, involving dedicated trains or large blocks of flammable liquid tank cars, have highlighted the vulnerabilities of the DOT-111 tank car and the need for comprehensive risk mitigation and emergency response strategies. The severe consequences resulting from the release of flammable liquids have underscored areas of concern identified in recent NTSB safety recommendations. The NTSB has invited researchers, crude oil and ethanol shippers, tank car builders, railroad carriers, emergency responders, and federal regulatory agencies to discuss the safety of crude oil and ethanol transportation by railroad. The invited panelists will provide presentations about current and proposed initiatives affecting these issues. Panelists will also discuss ways to reduce the consequences from accidents involving flammable liquids through tank car design, railroad operations, and emergency preparedness.

If you can't attend in person, the forum will be webcast.

NTSB public events are also streamed live via webcast. Webcasts are archived for a period of three months from the time of the meeting. Webcast archives are generally available by the end of the event day for public Meetings, and by the end of the next day for Technical conferences.