Crude oil transport trains, which travel through and often pause in Pottstown, have been gathering attention of late. The derailment that led to sky-high flames in West Virginia Feb. 16 has shone a national spotlight on an issue that hits close to home.
“If there is an incident, unfortunately, it could be catastrophic, with a million gallons or more in a unit train,” Pottstown Fire Chief Richard Lengel said. “In these tank cars there are usually a hundred cars or more. Each car has about 28,000 gallons.”
That adds up to about 3 million gallons of crude, roughly the same amount that was in the train in which 19 tanker cars derailed last week in Mount Carbon, W. Va., causing a fireball that burned for several days, forcing hundreds from their homes and contaminating the water supply.
The Bakken crude oil that ships on many of these trains is more volatile than most other types of crude oil, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.
“Not only is it on the high end of volatility, its production is skyrocketing: up from 9,500 rail-carloads in 2008 … to 415,000 (in 2013), a more than 4,000 percent increase,” Anthony Fox, DOT secretary, said in a 2014 press conference on the issue.
The frantic rate of increase is driven by the rise of domestic fuel extraction and production – Bakken crude oil comes from the Bakken Formation in North Dakota – and has brought attention and concern to the safety of trains carrying crude oil.
In the southeastern region of Pennsylvania and through the Pottstown tri-county area, the oil is carried by Norfolk Southern and falls under the Common Carrier Obligation, a rule that requires the railroad to haul any tankers and cars that meet federal regulation.
“Our tankers get to their destination 99.99 percent of the time without release due to an accident,” said David Pidgeon, a spokesman for Norfolk Southern. “We have worked very hard to enhance the safe movement of hazardous materials. We’re proud of that number, 99.99 percent, and we are continuing to pursue ways to make it even safer.”
When applied to the DOT statistics, however, that percentage shows the root of the problem. In 2008, 99.99 percent would leave less than one rail car a year, on average, subject to release from accident. Now, with the 4,000 percent spike in transport, it projects to a potential 41.5 cars a year.
The result has been an increase in accidents like the one in Fayette County, West Virginia. The Bakken crude oil in the Feb. 16 derailment was being carried by the railroad CSX. The incident sent Fayette and a neighboring county into a state of emergency and residents of two towns closest to the derailment were evacuated.
The resulting fire burned for several days, consuming a nearby house.
The derailment also caused oil to spill into the Kanawha River. Water treatment plants went offline for a day. The train also took down power lines in the area leaving many without electricity.
In the past two years, there have been a number of other derailments of crude oil trains. The best-case scenario, in these instances, is when a hazardous material response team is called but no punctures are found. One such case occurred in a South Philadelphia rail yard on Jan. 31 of this year.
The worst-case scenario is a disaster like the one in Lac-Megantic, Quebec, in July 2013, when a train carrying Bakken crude oil exploded, and 47 people were killed.
In Lac-Megantic, the train was carrying DOT-111 tanker cars. In the year following the accident, the U.S. Department of Transportation issued a safety advisory calling for companies to avoid the outdated cars.
Regulations are currently being considered that would force companies to phase out or enhance the safety of these cars in coming years.
“We have been advocating for many years for a higher safety standard,” Pidgeon said of Norfolk Southern. “It’s between the manufacturers, customers who rent and lease the cars and federal regulators. Ultimately we all want to get to the same thing – the safest possible tank car.”
In the meantime, a majority of the cars in use are in need of an upgrade. The Director of Public Safety in Montgomery County, Thomas Sullivan, can be counted among those advocating for safer cars.
“There is so much of this crude oil to move right now, and cars that have not been upgraded. Only about 25 percent are those reinforced cars,” Sullivan said. “The railroads’ safety records are pretty good. We have gone through this with propane cars in the past, until they changed the cars they transport propane in.”
Other regulations have been put in place to enhance safety. Crude oil trains do not travel faster than 50 mph and slow down through populated areas, Pidgeon said.
The tracks are inspected once a week by crews in the area for any problems, and at least once a year with devices that can detect flaws that are invisible to the naked eye.
Norfolk Southern notifies the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency when crude oil is being transported through the area.
That information trickles down to county and municipal emergency services in varying degrees.
“They don’t give us the specific times. We know that every day, these unit trains are coming through Montgomery County,” Sullivan said. “We have to prepare for what is coming through Montgomery County.”
Chief Lengel said that Pottstown doesn’t receive much information on the transports, though if something happens, it is the municipal emergency responders that are first to the scene.
The trains stop for clearance on the west side of Pottstown and can often be seen snaking along the track that runs adjacent to West High Street. Lengel said they may stop for several hours waiting for clearance. For security and proprietary reasons, Norfolk Southern does not release the details of these transports-including schedules and frequency of trips through Pottstown, or how many tanks cars are on a train and which contain crude oil.
“We see them. We know they’re there, and we will deal with whatever happens,” Lengel said.
The paradox is that the escalation in domestic oil production and transport is good for the economy, nationally and regionally.
“There is something really interesting happening in the U.S. right now. For decades there has been a goal to gain greater energy independence, and we’re moving toward that goal, extracting crude oil from shale. Refineries on the east coast are being renewed because of this,” Pidgeon said.
Until that oil is transported in safer tank cars, however, it remains a dangerous trade-off.
In the Philadelphia region, groups like the Sierra Club, Clean Water Action and PennEnvironment have organized community outreach programs to fight for more regulation on the trains.
“Oil trains are an outrageous risk to our communities,” said Adam Garber, field director for PennEnvironment, in a press release. “These trains are barreling through Pennsylvania putting the lives of hundreds of thousands at risk and it’s time our elected officials ended this threat before a disaster like West Virginia happens here.”
Next Week: What local and state agencies are doing to prepare for disaster
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
