Bakken Crude, Crude By Rail, Derailment, Emergency Readiness & Response, Explosion, Fire

Firefighters will sometimes stand back and let an oil train fire burn itself out

[Editor: The question arose here in Benicia whether emergency personnel sometimes choose to stand back after an oil train derailment and explosion and let a fire burn itself out.  Many reports show that this is in fact the case when there is a huge explosion following a Bakken oil train wreck.  – RS]

Casselton, North Dakota
Casselton, North Dakota

From the White Plains NY Journal News http://www.lohud.com/story/news/local/rockland/2014/04/23/crude-oil-derailments-fire-concerns/8054931/)
WASHINGTON – Crude oil and ethanol fires caused by derailed freight trains are left to burn out on their own because first responders can’t extinguish them, fire safety officials told the National Transportation Safety Board on Wednesday….“They are no-brainers,” Greg Noll of the National Fire Protection Association said during the second day of a two-day forum on safety issues linked to rail transport of crude oil and ethanol. “There is very little we as first responders are going to do.”….Even multiple fire departments located near the site of a railroad tanker fire don’t have enough foam to extinguish such blazes, which can spread from car to car.

From NorthJersey.com (http://www.northjersey.com/news/environment/firefighters-want-countywide-plan-1.1113693)
“The rapid growth is going to be beyond anything we can contain,” said Bergenfield Fire Chief Jason Lanzilotti, who held a response drill to an oil train derailment over the summer. “Evacuation is a major problem. Fire suppression is out of the question. There has to be some kind of framework so that not every town is individually looking at what needs to be done.” … Tiedemann talked about different methods firefighters may take in dealing with an oil train fire. He said it may be more dangerous to try to put a fire out immediately since the oil could flow away from the wreckage and reignite elsewhere.

From the Bellingham Herald: http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2014/09/14/3853569_preparing-for-the-worst-is-whatcom.html?rh=1
When faced with an event like a derailment, first responders have to decide whether to fight or surround the problem, depending on available resources and the size and intensity of any fire or spill, said Roger Christensen, Bellingham’s interim emergency manager and recently retired fire chief….“If you’re faced with an event you can’t do anything about, you have to decide how to protect what’s around it,” Christensen said….  “Even with a lot of foam you may not be able to put that fire out,” Brady told those at the White Salmon meeting. […quoting Patrick Brady, BNSF director of Hazardous Materials Special Operations].

From NRDC Switchboard, Diane Bailey’s Blog  (http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/dbailey/this_washington_that_washingto.html)
How can emergency responders deal with crude oil rail accidents?  A panel concluded that the best tactic is to let a derailment burn, pull back, and take a “defensive posture”.  Emergency responders were clear that the ongoing crude oil rail disasters are beyond their capabilities to handle.  “Even with an infinite amount of costly foam”, letting them burn is the only sensible approach (and this is what was done in Lynchburg this afternoon).  They note that major derailments would require enormous amounts of foam, there is not enough water to apply it especially in rural areas, and anyway, they cannot get close enough to the fires to apply it.  Derailments in urban areas would pose significant operating risks that go well beyond current operational capabilities for emergency responders.  [source was Rail Safety Consultant Fred Millar’s notes from the April 2014 rail safety forum in DC]

On the Casselton, ND fire – from The Associated Press (http://bigstory.ap.org/article/crews-respond-fiery-nd-train-derailment)
[About Casselton, ND] Investigators couldn’t get close to the blaze…and official estimates of how many train cars caught fire varied….The cars were still burning as darkness fell, and authorities said they would be allowed to burn out.

Also on the Casselton fire: http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/12/30/there-was-a-huge-fireball-train-carrying-crude-oil-explodes-after-derailing-in-north-dakota/
Cass County Sheriff’s Sgt. Tara Morris…estimates about 10 cars from a mile-long train caught fire and will have to burn out. She said it could take up to 12 hours before authorities can get close.

On the Lynchburg, VA fire – from Reuters (http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/04/30/us-railways-accident-virginia-idUSBREA3T0YW20140430)
JoAnn Martin, the city’s director of communications, said three or four tank cars were leaking, and burning oil was spilling into the river, which runs to Chesapeake Bay. She said firefighters were trying to contain the spill and would probably let the fire burn itself out.

Also on the Lynchburg fire – from The Huffington Post (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/02/lynchburg-virginia-oil-train-crash_n_5251991.html?utm_hp_ref=green)
Lynchburg officials evacuated some buildings and let the fire burn out…Richard Edinger, assistant fire chief in the Richmond suburb of Chesterfield County, said no fire department except those at some refineries has sufficient equipment and materials to deal with exploding oil-filled tank cars.

On the Lac-Mégantic fire – from In These Times (http://inthesetimes.com/article/16623/official_tipped_off_hess_rail_yard_about_unannounced_oil_inspection)
Canadian safety investigators found American shippers in North Dakota’s Bakken region had understated the volatility of the oil that ignited and destroyed much of Lac Mégantic’s downtown area. Improper classification caused the shipment to be transported in an improper package. Emergency responders, too, were caught by surprise at how quickly the fire spread and how long it burned.

Note that in Lac-Mégantic, the fire burned for the better part of two days.  See the NTSB report (http://www.ntsb.gov/doclib/recletters/2014/R-14-004-006.pdf).  Also Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lac-M%C3%A9gantic_rail_disaster) and The Globe and Mail (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/okay-were-in-hell-lac-megantic-fire-chief-recounts-night-of-train-explosion/article21137065/).

On RURAL accidents (let’s not forget about all of our uprail communities along UP’s tracks), this from Maine’s SeacoastOnline.com (http://www.seacoastonline.com/articles/20140417-NEWS-140419756)
The first people on scene at a rural oil incident will be declining numbers of volunteer firefighters who are hours from the highly-trained response teams and special kind of equipment, materials and gear needed to handle oil fires. Of 59 communities along rail lines, five have no fire department and 27 rely on solely volunteers.

 

 

Bakken Crude, Crude By Rail, Derailment, Emergency Readiness & Response, Explosion, Fire

Expert on first responder decisions to ‘let it burn’

[Editor: I recently received an email from Fred Millar, a well-known independent consultant and expert on chemical safety and railroad transportation.  Millar gives convincing and documented testimony that many first responders admit they do not have the skills and equipment needed to address a major derailment and explosion of a train carrying hazardous materials such as Bakken crude.  Here he addresses the tactic of “letting it burn itself out.”  Reprinted here with permission.  – RS]

Fred Millar on emergency response:

NTSB Rail Safety Forum 4.23.2014 (webcast at 8min05sec)_opt
Testimony at NTSB Rail Safety Forum April 23, 2014: Decision to Let Burn, (webcast at 8min05sec), http://ntsb.capitolconnection.org/042314/ntsb_archive_flv.htm

I recently commented on Emergency Response capabilities and cited some of the most authoritative sources I rely on regarding the impossibility of any effective ER to a crude oil unit train derailment:

I viewed online and transcribed for interested parties some parts of the NTSB Safety Forum in April, 2014.   One early session involved first-hand analyses of accidents and unchallenged authoritative judgments by prominent US Fire Chiefs [one representing the International Association of Fire Chiefs] and emergency planning representatives  asserting that they cannot handle a major flammables unit train derailment. which they said was “way beyond our current capabilities.”  [See video webscast, note presentation at 7:50]

Instead, they conceded that all they could implement were “defensive firefighting tactics,” i.e., evacuate to a safe distance.  The Federal government recommends a 1/2 mile evacuation and isolation distance in the Guide 128 of the venerable DOT Emergency Response Guidebook.  This guideline is based on only one railcar of crude oil involved in a fire, hardly a reflection of real-world accidents already experienced.  Since many experienced accidents have involved many railcars and unit trains on average have 100+ cars, some fire chiefs and emergency managers with crude oil unit train traffic are doing their pre-planning based on potential evacuation zones of 1/2 and 1 mile on each side of the tracks [e.g., statement by Seattle Emergency Management director Barb Graff] or even have pre-loaded their fire service vehicles with GIS maps showing emergency zones of 1/2, 1, 2, and 5-miles [e.g., James City County VA].

The US DOT Emergency Response Guidebook says both ethanol and crude oil trains are “highly flammable and explosive” under some conditions.  The main danger is not so much a “blast,” not technically speaking an explosion of a whole tank car, and the damages at Lac-Megantic were not mainly from blast.  The main risk is extensive fire and fireball events [which can feel to survivors like blasts on their faces] involving first the most volatile components of the cargo and then the main railcar cargo itself ———“rivers of fire”.

[I could elaborate and quote here from the cf UIUC academic study….]

Some US fire chiefs and emergency managers, who almost always prefer to maintain that their communities are “prepared” for even serious emergencies, have asserted [irresponsibly, I would maintain] that with adequate regional cooperation to combine strategically pre-positioned trailers with stocks of fire-fighting foam, they could “fight” crude oil train derailment fire events.   The Pittsburg CA Fire Department [crude oil unit train unloading project proposed] and the Boston MA metropolitan area fire chiefs [ongoing ethanol unit train shipments] thus recently separately submitted wish lists of  the different types of foam supplies needed for laying down a smothering blanket on relatively quiet and level crude oil or ethanol pool fires [useless for burning and exploding tank cars or raging “rivers of fire”], and for fixed foam spraying equipment at the unloading terminals and mobile foam vehicles for the line haul communities.  Along with desired training, etc., the chiefs estimated the cost at $1.2 million in the Boston case.

But in several post-Lac-Mégantic forums [again, see the NTSB Safety Forum, beginning around 8:40 on the webcast of Day Two] and in many media articles, the majority of fire service experts have been clear that the ongoing crude oil rail disasters are beyond their capabilities to handle.  “Even with an infinite amount of costly foam”, letting them burn is the only sensible approach (and this is what was done in all the major crude oil disasters in North America).  They note that major derailments would require enormous amounts of foam, there is not enough water to apply it especially in rural areas, and anyway, [from 1/2 mile distance or more] they cannot get close enough to the fires to apply it.  Derailments in urban areas would pose significant operating risks that go well beyond current operational capabilities for emergency responders.

Crude By Rail, Derailment, Emergency Readiness & Response

Fire department notified of derailment seven hours after incident

Repost from CBC News, New Brunswick

Moncton fire chief calls for swifter notice of derailments

Department was notified about weekend train derailment, oil spill 7 hours after incident
CBC News, Nov 10, 2014
The Moncton Fire Department was notified about a train derailment and oil spill at Gordon Yard seven hours after the incident.
The Moncton Fire Department was notified about a train derailment and oil spill at Gordon Yard seven hours after the incident. (Google Maps)

Moncton’s fire chief says the department should be called in immediately after a train derailment such as the incident that occurred Saturday at Gordon Yard.

At about 12:20 a.m. Saturday, 16 cars of an eastbound train — six empty automobile carriers and 10 loaded with crude oil — derailed while entering Gordon Yard, according to CN Rail.

One of the cars had a minor leak and just over 150 litres dripped on to the ground below the car, says a CN spokesman.

But Moncton Fire chief Eric Arsenault says the department wasn’t notified until more than seven hours later.

“From our perspective, we would have preferred to know about the derailment at the moment it happened,” said Arsenault.

“But the way things unfurled, RST, which is a company that was sent from Saint John to do the transfer of oil from the damaged car to a spare car, requested our presence as a precaution in case something were to go wrong in the transfer of product.”

The incident happened on private property, away from homes, businesses and the main rail line.

The cause of the incident remains under investigation, says a CN spokesman.

Transport Canada says it will follow up with CN to make sure rail safety rules were complied with.

Renewable energy, Solar energy

Solar industry heating up in California

Repost from The Sacramento Bee
[Editor: I still burn fossil fuel in my car, but my home and my electric bicycle are powered by the sun.  In Benicia, call or email Dave Hampton of Diablo Solar – Dave and the crew did a great job on my home.  – RS]

Solar industry is heating up again after stumbling during recession

Northern California companies are part of the energy surge
By Mark Glover, 11/08/2014
Birds fly over a solar power array, owned by the Sutter Basin Growers Cooperative, that provides Northern California farmers with a renewable energy source to power key equipment and save on energy costs in Knights Landing.
Birds fly over a solar power array, owned by the Sutter Basin Growers Cooperative, that provides Northern California farmers with a renewable energy source to power key equipment and save on energy costs in Knights Landing. | Paul Kitagaki Jr./Sacramento Bee file

The solar power industry, viewed more than a decade ago as a game-changing, jobs-producing juggernaut in California, took its lumps during the recession.

But now it’s coming back with a vengeance, both here and globally.

Some California solar system installers say they have work backlogs. New deals to build new solar power-generating arrays are being announced regularly. And the nation’s No. 1 solar installer, San Mateo-based SolarCity Corp., recently created ripples industrywide, announcing a loan program that lets homeowners finance and buy their rooftop solar systems. It also announced an offering of what it calls the nation’s first solar bonds.

“Inch by inch and now leap by leap, solar is growing and creeping further into the mainstream … and California is a center point for what we’re seeing now,” said Alfred Abernathy, a Bay Area energy analyst.

That growth is fueled partly by a sunnier economy, falling manufacturing costs, federal tax incentives and increasing consumer and corporate enthusiasm for renewable energy. Solar also has boomed far beyond California’s borders, spreading in China, Japan and Europe.

For perspective, the U.S. Department of Energy shows that the United States currently has about 16 gigawatts of installed solar power, or enough to power more than 3 million average American homes. Through June this year, California accounted for nearly half – 7 gigawatts – of the national total. A gigawatt is a unit of power equal to 1 billion watts.

By contrast, China’s solar power supply is more than 23 gigawatts, and it has set a goal of 35 gigawatts in 2015. Japan surpassed 14 gigawatts early this year and is working toward a goal of doubling that by 2020.

Sacramento’s solar hotspots

The industry’s hot streak has rippled throughout the Sacramento area.

SolarCity, which employs more than 500 locally, plans to move its rapidly growing sales staff into 60,000 square feet of space at 1000 Enterprise Way in Roseville’s Vineyard Pointe Business Park next month.

SolarCity CEO Lyndon Rive noted that if his company’s Sacramento-area operations alone were considered a single company, it would be among the largest solar firms in the United States.

Last month, Folsom-based 8minutenergy Renewables LLC received approval to build three solar projects of up to 135 megawatts in Kern County. Collectively called the Redwood Solar Farms, it will be developed on 640 acres of farmland. Construction of the first phase is set to begin in December, with energy production expected to begin in mid-2015.

Roseville’s SPI Solar, which warned in an early 2013 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that there was “substantial doubt as to the company’s ability to continue as a going concern,” has found new life since closely aligning operations with LDK Solar Co., its China-based parent company. In recent weeks, SPI has signed a blizzard of solar development agreements in China (regarded as the world’s No. 1 solar market), Japan and Europe.

David Hochschild, one of five commissioners on the California Energy Commission and an expert in renewable energy, acknowledged that solar energy was once regarded as a relatively exotic technology that was outside the mainstream for most consumers. But that perception is changing, and he envisions solar’s growth path similar to what the mobile phone industry experienced nearly a generation ago.

“I think the future is very bright, and I think that we will eventually reach the point where solar panels are as ubiquitous as cellphones,” he said.

Driving the growth

A combination of factors is propelling solar forward in California.

For one, an improving economy has helped. Sales and installations of residential and commercial solar systems nosedived during the housing meltdown but are on the upswing now.

Mark Frederick, president and CEO of CitiGreen Solar in Auburn, says his company is backlogged with orders from commercial clients. “My experience with businesses is that they are willing to invest (in solar) when they have had three good years in a row, and we have been seeing that.”

Hochschild cites another major factor: “In the past, the barrier has been cost, but it’s no longer a barrier.”

Improved methods of solar panel production have dramatically reduced manufacturing expenses, said Hochschild. In 1980, solar panels cost around $35 per watt to produce, he said. That fell to around $5 a watt in 2000 and currently stands at around 70 cents a watt.

Low cost was not always considered a plus in the solar industry. China’s overproduction of solar panels was cited by some energy experts as one of the factors producing a soft market in 2012. But the international playing field has shifted.

Subsidization of solar projects in China and Japan helped turbocharge the industry in those nations, to the point where Hochschild says the United States is the world’s No. 3 solar market, behind China and Japan, respectively. In China’s case, it went from being a relatively small builder of solar installations to a major builder in just several years.

That has benefited Roseville’s SPI Solar, which is now finding substantial work overseas due to its relationship with Chinese parent LDK. Xiaofeng Peng, SPI’s chairman, says SPI is now “one of the largest photovoltaic development companies in (China’s) market.”

Hochschild said California’s solar market also has benefited from Gov. Jerry Brown’s push for a third of California’s energy supply to come from renewable sources by 2020. Also helping the solar industry are federal tax credits of 30 percent for homeowners and businesses that install solar panels by Dec. 31, 2016.

Tax credits also played a role in SolarCity’s recently announced solar financing plan, which analyst Abernathy called a “game-changer.” “On one level, it’s a variation of the old-fashioned car loan.” Under the company’s MyPower plan, consumers take out a 30-year loan to purchase their rooftop solar system, rather than leasing it, which is the norm. The benefit of buying the system is that the homeowner gets the 30 percent federal tax credit, instead of the solar company.

Some red flags

For all of solar’s promise, energy analysts warn that the industry’s history is laced with periods of boom and bust, dating back to the 1954 invention of the world’s first practical solar cell by scientists at Bell Laboratories in New Jersey.

Already, there are some red flags.

In Japan, where subsidies and a favorable tariff policy created a solar boom following the March 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, energy analysts are now citing a glut of renewable-energy businesses and applications for solar facilities. Some fear that the industry could collapse under its own weight. Japan solar investors who were betting on relatively high renewable-energy rates over the long term are now voicing concerns.

In Europe, Germany was the embodiment of solar power expansion from 2010-12, installing a whopping 22.5 gigawatts of capacity. However, solar power installations have declined for two years, accompanied by significant job losses in the industry. Renewable-energy advocates have blamed the German government for enacting policies that restricted tariff benefits and put unreasonable restrictions on utility-scale installations.

SolarCity’s Rive dismissed concerns about the solar industry and its past history, stating that the recessionary dip in California occurred in manufacturing, not in the growth of solar companies.

As further evidence of the increasingly mainstream interest in solar technologies, a handful of major U.S. companies are now offering their workers substantial discounts on solar installations for their homes, making it another employee benefit like health care. The discounts will be available to 100,000 employees of four companies – Cisco Systems, 3M, Kimberly-Clark and National Geographic – part of a program announced last month by the World Wildlife Fund.

To insiders like Rive, that’s yet another sign of the solar industry’s momentum: “Now, more people are educated on it. More people are getting it.”

For safe and healthy communities…