Tag Archives: Fire

Crude By Rail, Derailment, Evacuation, Explosion, Fire, Oil spill

Record number of oil train spills in 2014

Repost from NBC News

Oil Train Spills Hit Record Level in 2014

By  Tony Dokoupil , January 26, 2015

Oil-train-spills-hit-record-levels-in-2014_Lynchburg-VAAmerican oil trains spilled crude oil more often in 2014 than in any year since the federal government began collecting data on such incidents in 1975, an NBC News analysis shows. The record number of spills sparked a fireball in Virginia, polluted groundwater in Colorado, and destroyed a building in Pennsylvania, causing at least $5 million in damages and the loss of 57,000 gallons of crude oil.

By volume, that’s dramatically less crude than trains spilled in 2013, when major derailments in Alabama and North Dakota leached a record 1.4 million gallons — more than was lost in the prior 40 years combined. But by frequency of spills, 2014 set a new high with 141 “unintentional releases,” according to data from the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA). By comparison, between 1975 and 2012, U.S. railroads averaged just 25 spills a year.

The vast majority of the incidents occurred while the trains were “in transit,” in the language of regulators, rumbling along a network of tracks that pass by homes and through downtowns. They included three major derailments and seven incidents classified as “serious” because they involved a fire, evacuation or spill of more than 120 gallons. That’s up from five serious incidents in 2013, the data shows.

“They’ve got accidents waiting to happen,” said Larry Mann, the principal author of the landmark Federal Railroad Safety Act of 1970. “Back in 1991 I said, ‘One day a community is going to get wiped out by a freight train. Well, in 2013 that happened and unless something changes it’s going to happen again.”

Mann was referring to the Lac-Mégantic disaster, a deadly derailment in Quebec just miles from the Maine border. A 72-car oil train rolled downhill and exploded on July 6, 2013, killing 47 people and destroying most of the town.


In the months that followed American regulators convened a series of emergency sessions. They promised sweeping new safeguards related to tank car design, train speed, route and crew size. To date none of those rules have been finalized.

On January 15 the Department of Transportation missed a deadline set by Congress for final rules related to tank cars, which have a decades-long history of leaks, punctures, and catastrophic failure. The rules are being worked on by PHMSA and the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA).

In response to questions from NBC News, PHMSA declined to explain the delay in new rules but it defended the relative safety of oil-by-rail. “More crude is being transported across the country than in any time in our history, and we are aggressively developing new safety standards to keep communities safe,” PHMSA spokesperson Susan Lagana said in a statement.

“Last year, over 87,000 tank cars were in use transporting crude oil, and 141 rail crude oil releases were reported,” she continued. “The amount of crude oil released in these spills was less than the capacity of two tank cars.”

The FRA declined a request for comment. It did, however, provide data that suggests the railroads are getting better overall at transporting hazardous material. Between 2004 and 2014, for example, the number of collisions and derailments involving trains carrying hazardous material fell by more than half, from 31 to 13, according to the data.

Ed Greenberg, a spokesperson for the Association of American Railroads (AAR), the industry’s principal trade group, said the railroads themselves support stronger tank cars. The oil industry actually owns most of the cars used to transport its product, he said. That has complicated the rule-making process and set off a debate over which industry should cover the cost of an upgrade.

Greenberg also sharply disagreed with the idea that oil-by-rail was getting more dangerous. With 40 times more oil being hauled along U.S. rail lines in 2015 than in 2005, he acknowledges that the raw number of incidents has increased. But he argues that the railroads have never been safer overall.

“Railroads have dramatically improved their safety over the last three decades, with the 2014 train accident rate trending at being the lowest ever,” he told NBC News, citing multi-billion-dollar investments in new cars, tracks, and workers.

Last year, he added, 99.97 percent of all hazardous material on the rails reached its destination without incident. Of the 141 oil spills included in the federal data, meanwhile, the AAR calculates that fewer than 10 involved the loss of more than a barrel of oil.

But critics say that’s little comfort to the estimated 25 million Americans who within the one-mile evacuation zone that the US Department of Transportation recommends in the event of an oil train-derailment.

“Moving oil from one place to another is always risky, and even a single spill has the potential to harm land and marine ecosystems for good,” said Karthik Ganapathy, communications manager for 350.org, an environmental group that has helped organize protests against oil by rail. “These new data confirm what we’ve known to be true all along—oil-by-rail is incredibly dangerous.”

Explosion, Fire, Natural gas, Pipeline transport

West Virginia fireball – fourth pipeline accident this month

Repost from Think Progress

Pipeline Explodes In West Virginia, Sends Fireball Shooting Hundreds Of Feet In The Air

 By Emily Atkin, January 27, 2015

A gas pipeline in Brooke County, West Virginia exploded into a ball of flames on Monday morning, marking the fourth major mishap at a U.S. pipeline this month.

No one was hurt in the explosion, but residents told the local WTRF 7 news station that they could see a massive fireball shooting hundreds of feet into the air. An emergency dispatcher reportedly told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review that the flames had melted the siding off one home and damaged at least one power line. The gas pipeline is owned by Houston, Texas-based The Enterprise Products, L.P., which said Monday evening that it is investigating the cause of the explosion.

The West Virginia explosion is the fourth in a string of news-making pipeline incidents this month. Earlier this month, a gas pipeline in Mississippi operated by GulfSouth Pipeline exploded, rattling residents’ windows and causing a smoke plume large enough to register on National Weather Service radar screens. On Jan. 17, a pipeline owned by Bridger Pipeline LLC in Montana spilled up to 50,000 gallons of crude oil into the Yellowstone River, a spill that left thousands of Montanans without drinkable tap water. Just a few days later, on Jan. 22, it was discovered that 3 million gallons of saltwater drilling waste had spilled from a North Dakota pipeline earlier in the month. That spill was widely deemed the state’s largest contaminant release into the environment since the North Dakota oil boom began.

Here’s some footage of Monday’s explosion’s resulting fire, via WTRF 7.

The four incidents come while American lawmakers are entrenched in debate whether the controversial Keystone XL pipeline — a proposed 1,700-mile line that would bring up to 860,000 barrels of Canadian tar sands crude oil down to Texas and Louisiana refineries every day — is in the national interest.

One of arguments most often made by environmentalists against the pipeline is that, if a spill were to occur from Keystone XL, it would be harder to clean up than a spill from a conventional oil or gas pipeline. Canadian tar sands oil is thicker and more sludgy than regular oil, and does not float on top of water like conventional crude. Instead, it gradually sinks to the bottom. Environmentalists are particularly concerned about the fact that Keystone XL would pass over the Ogallala aquifer, Nebraska’s primary source of drinking water. Nebraska’s state Department of Environmental Quality has said that a spill in or around the aquifer would only affect local, not regional water sources.

The Republican-controlled House of Representatives has already passed a bill approving Keystone XL’s construction, and the Senate is expected to pass an identical bill this week, though it has come up against unexpected procedural hurdles. President Obama has pledged to veto the bill.

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

New Technical Brief on Explosion, Fireball and Pool Fire Threats from Ignited Crude Oil

Repost from Homeland Security Today (HSTODAY.US)
[Editor: This article gives an overview of two expert briefs by AristaTek, both of which require sign-up and an online meeting before they can be downloaded.  Intended for hazmat teams, fire departments/fire marshals, sheriffs, and public safety/health professionals, but not available to the general public, SOMEONE should make sure our legislators, regulators, and first responders have accessed these important studies.  And hopefully, someone will share it with those of us who are opposing crude by rail.  I will post these documents here if/when I locate them.  – RS]

New Technical Brief on Explosion, Fireball and Pool Fire Threats from Ignited Crude Oil

By Anthony Kimery, Editor-in-Chief, 01/21/2015

In a follow-up to AristaTek’s January 2014 technical brief, Toxic Consequences of Smoke Plumes from Crude Oil Fires, that was prepared in response to the threat of an accident involving crude oil shipments, the company has prepared a new technical brief, Hazards Associated with Spilled Crude, to help with planning and response to accidents involving crude oil by consolidating several key pieces of information important to planners and responders.

A leading provider of hazardous materials planning and response solutions, AristaTek’s new brief to be released this week details the consequences of vapor cloud explosions, fireballs and pool fires for various quantities of spilled crude oil. AristaTek makes its technical briefings available at no cost to hazmat teams, fire departments, fire marshals, sheriffs, first responders and emergency response officials and any other public safety and health professionals to assist in their responsibility to protect their communities.

“We decided to do another tech brief on crude oil as there have been several articles lately about communities having done studies which show themselves to be largely unprepared for a disaster involving crude oil,” Homeland Security Today was told by AristaTek spokesman C. Scott Bunning. “Our brief provides a ‘Hazard Table’ for explosive and burn effects of both fireballs and pool fires for various along with other consolidated info we hope responders and planners will find as a useful resource.”

“During a train derailment involving crude oil, the immediate threats that responders worry about the most are the vapor cloud explosions and pool fires,” said AristaTek CEO Bruce King. “We felt analyzing these threats and providing an easy to follow table for various quantities of spilled crude would be a useful resource for planners and responders alike.”

“According to the American Association of Railroads, there were 362,000 carloads of crude oil shipped in the first three quarters of 2014,” the company said, pointing out that, “This amount is twice that of the same time period only two short years ago in 2012. Several high-profile accidents in 2013 highlighted the inherent dangers this substance can present to communities. Many states have conducted recent surveys of their response capabilities for accidents involving spilled crude and have found their responders largely unprepared for a large accident involving the substance.”

“A typical tank car may contain 30,000 gallons of crude oil, and could be part of a unit train containing over 100 tank cars. The most common accident is a train derailment, which may or may not result in a rupture spilling crude oil,” the brief says. And, “Because of its flammable nature, the crude may ignite resulting in explosions, fireball and pool fire. Multiple rail cars may be involved. The fire will also produce a dense black smoke cloud which could require evacuations or shelter -in-lace. There may be environmental concerns because of spills into a waterways.”

AristaTek said, “Crude oil presents several hazards when it is spilled in the environment and [its new technical brief] summarizes these hazards in a useful table. The first hazards happen when the spilled crude vaporizes, contacts an ignition source, explodes and also rapidly burns in a fireball. The resulting hazards are an explosion who blast is measured in overpressure, and the fireball which has a burn hazard for those standing too close.”

“The other hazard,” the firm said, “is a burn hazard associated with burning pool of spilled crude. The table offers safe-standoff distances for various quantities of spilled crude for all three hazards. The brief also offers some highlights of the recently issued industry reports on Bakken crude oil detailing characteristics of this type of crude and its lower flash point, and points out several government and industry sources for response information and protocols for emergency response.”

“The table of hazards was prepared using our flagship PEAC-WMD software, the world’s leading hazardous materials technical reference and modeling software,” King said. “Preparing this table and the brief overall is one of our efforts to provide a free but effective resource for those planners and responders attempting to prepare for this threat that isn’t going away any time soon despite the recent drop in oil prices.”

Bakken Crude, Crude By Rail, Derailment, Emergency Readiness & Response, Explosion, Fire, First responder training, Oil spill, Tar sands crude, U.S. Department of Transportation

KFBK News Radio: How safe is Sacramento?

Repost from KFBK News Radio, Sacramento CA
[Editor: Two part series, both shown below.  Of particular interest: a link to 2014 California Crude Imports by Rail.  Also, at the end of the article an amazing Globe and Mail video animation detailing the moments leading up to the devastating explosion in Lac-Megantic Quebec.  – RS]

Part 1: How Safe is Sacramento When it Comes to Crude-by-Rail?

By Kaitlin Lewis, January 16, 2015


Two different railroad companies transport volatile crude oil to or through Sacramento a few times a month. The trains pass through Truckee, Colfax, Roseville, Sacramento and Davis before reaching a stop in Benicia. Last week, a train carrying the chemical Toluene derailed in Antelope.

KFBK’s Tim Lantz reported that three cars overturned in the derailment. There was initially some concern about a possible Hazmat leak.

Union Pacific Railroad insists over 99 percent of hazardous rail shipments are handled safely.

Most of the oil shipped in California is extremely toxic and heavy Canadian tar sands oil, but an increasing portion of shipments are Bakken crude, which has been responsible for major explosions and fires in derailments.

Firefighters around the region are being trained on how to respond to crude oil spills.

However, Kelly Huston with the California Office of Emergency Services says 40 percent of the state’s firefighters are volunteers.

“They’re challenged right from the get-go of being able to respond to a catastrophic event like a derailment, explosion or spill of a highly volatile compound like crude oil,” Huston said.

Since 2008, crude by rail has increased by 4000 percent across the country.

By 2016, crude-by-rail shipments in California are supposed to rise by a factor of 25.

Union Pacific Railroad hosted a training session in November 2014.

Six out of the eight state fire departments listed as having completed the course confirm they were there.

“We were trained in November,” Jerry Apodaca, Captain of Sac City Fire, said.

When asked when he received the first notification of crude oil coming through, he said he didn’t have an exact date, but that it was probably a month or two prior to the training — in September or October.

Apodaca says the U.S. Department of Transportation requires railroads to notify state officials about Bakken oil shipments.

“Basically it just says in this month’s time, there should be 100,000 gallons going through your community. So it didn’t really specify when, or where, or how many cars or what it looks like,” Apodaca said.

And Paul King, rail safety chief of the California Public Utilities Commission, says it’s not easier to distinguish which lines transport Bakken oil through an online map.

“It was hard to interpret and it was too gross. Basically, the whole state of California on an 8 1/2 by 11 piece of paper with what appears to be a highlighter pen just running through the counties,” King said.

See a map of North American crude by rail.
California rail risk and response.
2014 Crude Imports by Rail

PART 2: How Sacramento’s First Responders Will Deal with Oil Spill


KFBK told you Sacramento’s firefighters were being trained on how to respond to a crude-by-rail derailment after shipments had already been going through the region in Part 1.

In Part 2, KFBK’s Kaitlin Lewis will tell you how Sacramento’s first responders will handle a possible oil spill, and what caused that train derailment along the Feather River Canyon.

It’s called a bomb train.

On July 6, 2013, 47 people were killed in Canada when a 73-car train carrying crude oil derailed.

About 30 buildings in the  Lac-Mégantic downtown district were destroyed. The fire burned for 36 hours.

“If we have a derailment and fire of crude oil, fire departments are going to throw large quantities of water and foam to cool the tanks and to put a blanket on the liquid that’s on the ground to help smother that fire,” Mike Richwine, assistant state fire marshal for Cal Fire, said.

Richwine says that’s the only operation for a spill/fire.

In December, 11 cars carrying corn derailed along the Feather River Canyon.

Paul King, rail safety chief of the California Public Utilities Commission reveals the cause was a rail line break.

“That was probably the most concerning accident because that just as well could have been one of the Bakken oil trains, the corn, you know, ran down the bank. It was heavy, and it consequently does put more force on the rail, but it’s about the same weight as an oil train,” King said.

Aaron Hunt, a spokesman for Union Pacific says California has more than 40 track inspectors and 470 track maintenance employees.

“In addition to that, cutting edge technology that we put in to use for track inspection. One of those technologies is our geometry car. It measures using lasers and ultrasonic waves, the space between the two rails — makes sure that space is accurate,” Hunt said.

But Kelly Huston, deputy director of California’s Office of Emergency Services says the real challenge is preparedness in remote areas like the Feather River Canyon, which is designated as a High Hazard Area due to historic derailments.

“In some more metropolitan areas, your response may be quicker and they’ll have that gear and the training and knowledge of, like, how do we fight this kind of fire? And in some areas, like in the more remote areas like we talked about in the Feather River Canyon there’s going to be perhaps maybe volunteer firefighters that have the basic equipment,” Huston said.

The Feather River feeds the California Water Project, which provides drinking water for millions of Californians. The nearest first responder is Butte County Fire Department, which is approximately 31 miles away.