Bridge safety, Crude By Rail, Derailment, Explosion, Rail infrastructure, Rail inspection

Sen. Bob Casey calls for more funding for railroad bridges

Repost from The Herald, Sharon PA

Casey calls for more funding for railroad bridges

By John Finnerty, CNHI Harrisburg, August 7, 2015 7:38 am

HARRISBURG – The federal government must step up oversight of railroad bridges as hundreds of trains carrying explosive crude oil from the Bakken region of North Dakota cross the state each week, said U.S. Sen. Bob Casey.

Casey, a Democrat and the state’s senior senator, has repeatedly criticized the government’s regulation of railroads in light of derailments and explosions involving crude oil.

Pennsylvania has more than 900 bridges that carry trains over highways, Casey said. The Federal Railroad Administration has just one inspector to check those bridges.

Under a 2010 Federal Railroad Administration rule, railroads must check each bridge at least once a year. At the time that rule was adopted, the government estimated there were 100,000 railroad bridges in the United States.

Railroads face fines of $100,000 for failing to comply with inspection rules.

But short-staffing at the railroad administration means the agency is in no position to ensure that railroads comply, Casey said.

“This lack of oversight could cause gaps in our rail safety system and creates an environment where hundreds of unsafe bridges could be in daily use without proper federal oversight,” he said in a written statement. “It’s time to put more cops on the beat by hiring more rail inspectors. With the risks that our communities face only increasing, the FRA needs to put this process into overdrive.”

Before the Bakken region’s tracking boom, railroads carried about 9,500 cars of crude oil a year. This year they’re on track to top a half-million, according to the American Association of Railroads.

That includes trains that carry at least 60 to 70 million gallons of crude oil across Pennsylvania each week.

Crude By Rail, Derailment, Fire, Human error, Rail infrastructure, Rail inspection

To boost the safety of moving oil by rail, focus on the tracks, paper argues

Repost from the Houston Chronicle

To boost the safety of moving oil by rail, focus on the tracks, paper argues

Infrastructure report says broken rails and human error are also problems as shipments of crude increase

By Jennifer A. Dlouhy, August 6, 2015
A train hauls crude oil in Seattle last month. Railroads and regulators can leverage technology to make existing inspection programs more efficient and effective, says a white paper by the Alliance for Innovation and Infrastructure.on Wednesday, July 15, 2015. The highly controversial trains haul rail cars loaded with oil brought from the oil fields of North Dakota and Montana. (Joshua Trujillo, seattlepi.com) Photo: JOSHUA TRUJILLO / SEATTLEPI.COM
A train hauls crude oil in Seattle last month. Railroads and regulators can leverage technology to make existing inspection programs more efficient and effective, says a white paper by the Alliance for Innovation and Infrastructure.on Wednesday, July 15, 2015. The highly controversial trains haul rail cars loaded with oil brought from the oil fields of North Dakota and Montana. (Joshua Trujillo, seattlepi.com) Photo: JOSHUA TRUJILLO / SEATTLEPI.COM

WASHINGTON – More can be done to boost the safety of moving oil by rail by focusing on the tracks themselves, according to a white paper released Thursday by a group promoting infrastructure investments.

New rules requiring more resilient tank cars are an important step, the Alliance for Innovation and Infrastructure said, but regulators, railroads and shippers now need to do more to combat the leading cause of derailments, including broken rails and human error.

From integrity sensors to measurement systems, an array of technologies can help ensure tracks are sound, said Brigham McCown, chairman of the alliance and a former head of the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.

‘Proactive engagement’

“We tend to be reactionary. Something happened, so what are we going to do to fix it?” McCown told reporters Thursday. “We focus on the accident, rather than focusing on a long-term proactive engagement of reducing the potential for accidents to begin with.”

The issue has drawn attention amid a surge in oil-by-rail traffic. As trains carry crude across the United States to refineries and ports, there has also been a series of fiery derailments involving tank cars carrying that hazardous material.

Over 22 pages, the alliance’s white paper makes the case that railroads and regulators can leverage technology to make existing inspection programs more efficient and effective.

Existing regulations, updated in 2014, already mandate both track and rail inspections – the former often entails workers examining the physical conditions of track structures and the roadbed by foot or by vehicle, with that monitoring required as frequently as weekly in some cases. Rail inspections use ultrasonic or induction testing to identify hidden internal defects, with their timing generally pegged to the amount of traffic on rail segments.

The Federal Railroad Administration also requires other probes, including monthly inspections of switches, turnouts, track crossings and other devices.

Constant inspections

Many railroads go above and beyond those inspection requirements.

“Freight railroads spend billions of dollars every year on maintaining and further modernizing the nation’s rail network, including safety enhancing rail infrastructure and equipment,” said Ed Greenberg, a spokesman for the Association of American Railroads. “At any point during the day or night, the nation’s rail network is being inspected, maintained or being upgraded.”

But the infrastructure alliance reiterates a previous assertion by the National Transportation Safety Board, that track inspections are undermined when a single worker can inspect multiple lines at the same time, as currently allowed.

And McCown emphasized that existing technology can boost the odds of catching broken rails and other problems before an accident.

Clean-up costs, Offshore drilling, Oil spill, Pipeline rupture, Pipeline transport, Spill prevention and response, Water contamination, Wildlife

Santa Barbara oil spill might have been far larger than projected

Repost from Associated Press
[Editor:  See also local coverage in the Benicia Herald.  – RS]

Oil spill might be larger than projected

By Michael R. Blood, Aug. 5, 2015 4:04 PM EDT
In this May 21 file photo, David Ledig, a national monument manager from the Bureau of Land Management, walks past rocks covered in oil at Refugio State Beach, north of Goleta. New documents released Wednesday show that the Plains All American Pipeline spill, originally estimated to be around 101,000 gallons, might have been much larger than projected. JAE C. HONG , THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

LOS ANGELES (AP) — More than two months after oil from a ruptured pipeline fouled California beaches, documents released Wednesday disclosed that the spill might have been far larger than earlier projected.

Plains All American Pipeline had estimated that the May 19 break along a corroded section of pipe near Santa Barbara released up to 101,000 gallons of crude. The resulting mess forced a popular state park to shut down for two months, and goo from the spill washed up on beaches as far as 100 miles away.

In documents made public Wednesday, the Texas-based company said alternate calculations found the spill might have been up to 143,000 gallons, or about 40 percent larger.

The company is continuing its analysis, and the figures are preliminary. Plains All American has hired an outside consultant as part of the effort to reconcile the differences, the documents said.

At this point, the company considers the methodology used in its initial estimate to be “the most straight forward and accurate calculation.” However, it emphasized the estimate could change as the investigation continues.

In a statement, Sen. Edward J. Markey, D-Massachusetts, faulted the federal agency responsible for regulating the nation’s pipelines for the conflicting figures.

“The revelation that the Santa Barbara pipeline spill was much larger than originally thought underscores the importance of our pipeline safety agency providing complete information to Congress and the American people. Unfortunately, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration’s operational culture has been to withhold information from the American people and Congress,” he said.

The company has been criticized for taking about 90 minutes to alert federal responders after confirming the spill, even though federal regulations require the company to notify the National Response Center, a clearinghouse for reports of hazardous-material releases, “at the earliest practicable moment.” State law requires immediate notification of a release or a threatened release.

The cleanup is nearly complete, although the cause of the break is under investigation. The state attorney general and local prosecutors are considering possible charges, and the documents said the U.S. Justice Department is also investigating.

The company said it’s covering legal costs for several employees who could be questioned by the Justice Department.

No timeline has been set to restart the pipeline.

CEO Greg Armstrong told Wall Street analysts in a phone call that the company faced as much as $257 million in potential costs from the break, which includes estimates for cleanup operations, possible legal claims and fines.

At the end of June, the company said cleanup costs had hit $92 million.

Wildlife officials reported that nearly 200 birds and more than 100 marine mammals were found dead in the spill area. Investigators have not yet determined what, if any, role the spill played in those deaths.

Crude By Rail

Tesoro refinery to pay $4M for inadequate air emission controls for 7 years

Repost from Contra Costa Times

Tesoro refinery to pay $4 million for inadequate air emission controls for seven years

By Denis Cuff, 08/05/2015 02:08:39 PM PDT

MARTINEZ — Saying Tesoro created unlawful and dangerous fumes periodically over a span of seven years, the Bay Area’s clean-air agency is collecting $4 million in penalties from the Golden Eagle refinery in one of its largest-ever pollution settlements.

Tesoro has agreed to pay the penalties for bypassing air pollution controls designed to capture butane, propane and other gas emissions, the agency announced Wednesday.

From 2007 to 2014, the refinery east of Martinez periodically drained gas-laden process water directly to its plant sewer system without first running it through equipment to capture vapors, air officials said.

As a result, officials said, volatile, smog-forming organic gases like butane and propane evaporated into the air at uncontrolled rates.

An aerial view shows the Tesoro Golden Eagle Refinery in Pacheco on March 18, 2008. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)

The fumes exposed plant workers to risks of explosions and the public to greater risks of smog, the air district said.

“We brought it to their attention several times, and it took a little less than a year to fix the problem,” said Ralph Borrmann, an air district spokesman. “The size of the penalty is related to the delay.”

An air district inspector discovered the periodic bypass during a routine refinery inspection in 2013, and the company fixed the problem in 2014 after repeated pleas to do so, officials said.

Tesoro spokesman Brian Nunnally said the refinery “responded quickly to the cited incidents once they were identified, and has taken corrective measures to avoid their recurrence.”

Repost from SFGate

Tesoro settles Martinez refinery pollution suit for $4 million

By Kurtis Alexander, August 5, 2015 5:08 pm

Texas-based oil manufacturer Tesoro Corp. has agreed to pay $4 million to settle a lawsuit claiming the company spewed smog- and ozone-producing pollutants at its refinery in Martinez.

Bay Area air quality regulators announced the deal Wednesday after an eight-year investigation found that refinery workers disposed of the plant’s byproducts in sewer and water-treatment facilities without first removing contaminants that could evaporate and pollute the atmosphere.

The emissions of butane and propane hydrocarbon were recorded at the facility from 2007 to 2014, according to the Bay Area Air Quality Management District. Local regulations require refineries to treat liquid waste so that volatile compounds are removed.

District officials called Tesoro’s practices “unlawful and dangerous.”

Without admitting liability, the company said it has addressed the concerns of regulators.

“Tesoro takes compliance with environmental regulations seriously and strives to comply at all times,” the company said. “In all cases, Tesoro responded quickly to the cited incidents once they were identified, and has taken corrective measures to avoid their recurrence.”

The company is no longer discharging its waste illegally, according to the district.

“We require Bay Area refineries to control their emissions at every step of their process,” Jack Broadbent, the district’s executive officer, said in a statement. “Through the air district’s aggressive enforcement program, these violations were discovered and this uncontrolled release of air pollution stopped.”

Tesoro operates six refineries in the western United States and can produce up to 850,000 barrels of oil daily.

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