Benicia CA, Crude By Rail, Derailment, Explosion, Take Action, Valero Benicia Refinery, Valero Crude By Rail

OIL TRAIN EXPLOSION RESPONSE – Rally for Benicia Awareness and Action! Thursday 5/7, 11:45am, City Park

Repost from Benicians For a Safe and Healthy Community (BSHC), Benicia, California

THURSDAY, MAY 6, 2015, 11:45 a.m.

Oil Train Derails, Explodes in North Dakota – Rally for Benicia Awareness and Action!
CITY PARK, FIRST & MILITARY, BENICIA, 11:45 a.m.

Everyone said it would happen again soon.
Well, Wednesday, May 6 was “The Next BIG ONE” …
… and one more is one too many!

Heimdal, North Dakota, 2015-05-06

We heard all-too-familiar news this morning – that an oil train derailed and exploded in North Dakota.  Only this time, it was just four days after the Department of Transportation released new rules for trains hauling hazardous crude oil. Residents of the town of Heimdal, North Dakota were evacuated and warned about smoke inhalation.  Thankfully, as of this writing, no one was injured or killed, but lives are upset, the land and air are fouled, and rainwater is gathering in an intermittent nearby waterway known as the Big Slough, which feeds into the James River 15 miles downstream.

At 11:45 a.m. Thursday, join us in City Park, First & Military in Benicia to protest the growing presence of explosive Bakken crude oil trains in the U.S. and Canada.  Together, we will call attention to the role that Benicia may (or may not) play in future explosions like the one that took place today, should the City permit Valero Refinery to build a crude-by-rail offloading facility here.

banthebombtrains350 Today’s explosion in North Dakota is the fifth explosive derailment that has occurred in the U.S. and Canada this year, including these previous accidents in 2015:

  • Gogama, Ontario Canada
  • Mount Carbon, West Virginia
  • Galena, Illinois and
  • Another one in Gogama, Ontario, Canada.

Since July of 2013, when a train carrying explosive Bakken crude oil from North Dakota derailed causing the deaths of 47 people in Lac Mégantic, Quebec, there have been four additional explosive derailments of Bakken crude in North America:

  • Aliceville, Alabama in November, 2013
  • Casselton, North Dakota in December of 2013
  • New Brunswick, Canada in January of 2014, and
  • Lynchburg, Virginia in April of 2014.

Because Valero plans to bring Bakken crude oil to Benicia, this same disaster could happen here, or anywhere along the way to our small city.

Benicia’s great opportunity in coming months is to say a firm NO THANKS to our friends at Valero, and to wish them well in our shared future of clean and renewable energy.