Tag Archives: U.S. Department of Transportation

Bakken Crude, Crude By Rail, Derailment, Massive increase in crude-by-rail, Rail routing

Seattle oil train derailment further fuels concerns, opposition

Repost from MYNorthwest.com

Seattle oil train derailment further fuels concerns, opposition

By Josh Kerns  on July 24, 2014
derail.jpg
Crews stand by an oil train that derailed early Thursday in Seattle. (Hayley Farless/Washington Environmental Council)

While no oil spilled when a train carrying crude oil through Seattle derailed Thursday morning, local officials say it’s a dangerous wake up call that can’t be ignored.

The train, with 100 tanker cars of Bakken crude oil, was heading for a refinery at Anacortes and pulling out of the Interbay rail yard at 5 mph when five cars derailed early Thursday morning, said Burlington Northern Santa Fe spokesman Gus Melonas.

They included one of the locomotives, a buffer car loaded with sand and three tankers. The locomotive, buffer car and one tanker remained upright. Two of the tankers tilted. One leaning at a 45-degree angle had to be pumped out and taken elsewhere for repairs, Melonas said.

No one was injured in the accident and a railroad hazardous material crew was on the scene in five minutes, he said.

King County Executive Dow Constantine said the incident underscores the need for federal regulators to take action immediately on new rules to protect the public.

“I’m very concerned that large volatile oil trains pose significant risk for derailment, fire, explosion, loss of property and life.”

Constantine tells KIRO Radio he finds it troubling that local governments have little say or control over what passes through their communities while facing potential dangers.

Concerns about oil trains have grown significantly as production of domestic oil continues to increase. More people became aware of oil train dangers when a runaway train exploded in 2013 in the Quebec town of Lac-Megantic, killing 47 people.

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee cited safety and environmental risks in June when he directed state agencies to evaluate oil transport in Washington.

The derailment comes just one week after Constantine convened a group of elected leaders from across the Northwest and British Columbia to examine what he calls “the true costs and impacts of coal and oil trains on our communities.”

“We need to have a conversation about what is appropriate to ship through these heavily populated areas and what kind of notice people deserve that these shipments are taking place,” Constantine said.

On Wednesday, the Seattle City Council sent a letter to U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx supporting a petition filed by environmental groups seeking an emergency ban on shipments of Bakken and other highly flammable crude oil in old style tankers known as DOT-111 cars.

“The city of Seattle is deeply concerned about the threat to life, safety and the environment of potential spills and fires from the transport of petroleum by rail,” the letter said.

The government proposed rules Wednesday that would phase out tens of thousands of older tank cars that carry increasing quantities of crude oil and other highly flammable liquids through America’s towns and cities.

The tankers involved in the Seattle accident hold about 27,000 gallons of oil and are a newer design with enhanced safeguards.

“The cars performed as designed,” Melonas said. “There was no release of product.”

It was the first incident in the state involving an oil train, he said.

“We have an outstanding safety record, and derailments have declined in Washington state over 50 percent on BNSF main lines in the past decade,” he said.

But Seattle City Councilman Mike O’Brien tells KIRO Radio he wants far greater assurance.

“As far as which steps need to be taken before I’m comfortable, I don’t have an answer for that yet. But I’m really disappointed that people aren’t taking those steps immediately,” he said.

The Seattle accident occurred on the same day the Corps of Engineers is holding a hearing in Seattle on a draft environmental statement for a pier that BP built at its Cherry Point refinery north of Bellingham to handle oil tankers and oil trains. Environmental groups planned a rally before the hearing.

“This is a warning of how dangerous this could be,” says Kerry McHugh, communications director for the Washington Environmental Council.

She noted the train derailed near Puget Sound, under Seattle’s Magnolia Bridge, the main connection to one of the city’s neighborhoods.

“The potential for environmental damage, economic damage and the disruption of people’s lives is huge,” she says.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

CPC-1232 standard, Crude By Rail, DOT-111, Federal Regulation (U.S.), Tank car design, Tank car retrofit

New DOT crude-by-rail rules could cost $2.6 – $6 billion

Repost from ArgusMedia.com
[Editor: Significant quote: “An estimated 59% of all crude produced in North Dakota left by rail, according to state figures.  It is too soon say to say whether or not the new DOT rules could impact Bakken output, the state’s director of the Department of Mineral Resources Lynn Helms said.”  – RS]

New DOT crude-by-rail rules could cost $2.6bn-$6bn

24 Jul 2014

Houston, 24 July (Argus) — The Department of Transportation’s proposed rules to overhaul tank cars transporting crude and ethanol could cost $2.6bn-$6bn to implement, according to the agency’s analysis.

The cost estimates are based on various combinations of the proposed speed limitations and rail car specifications, calculated over a 20-year period. The least expensive combination, at $2.6bn, would pair newer-model jacketed CPC-1232 cars and train limits of 40mph in designated high-threat urban areas. The most expensive solution, at $6bn, would be to pair cars with a design standard proposed by DOT and a system-wide train speed limit of 40mph.

Without the new rules, DOT agency the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) expects about 15 mainline derailments to occur in 2015, falling to about five per year by 2034. The US could also experience over the next 20 years an additional 10 safety events of higher consequence, with nine having environmental damages and injury and fatality costs exceeding $1.15bn each, the DOT predicts. One future accident over the next 20 years would cost over $5.75bn.

Under the proposed rules, DOT-111 tank cars would no longer be allowed to move crude and ethanol. The cars have been proven to have insufficient puncture resistance, weak bottom outlet valves in accidents and vulnerability in fire and rollover accidents, the DOT said.

Thousands of tank cars used to carry crude and ethanol would be removed from service within two years unless they are retrofit to comply with new design standards under the proposal announced yesterday. The phase-out program would be faster than the three-year program adopted by the Canadian government earlier this year.

The proposed changes range widely in cost. Voluntary rail routing would cost $5.5mn to implement, while new materials classification rules could cost $16.2mn. The three proposed tank car retrofit options would cost $2.5-3mn to implement, and yield benefits estimated to be worth $432.5mn-$3.5bn. The least expensive of the speed restrictions, 40mph in high-threat urban areas, would cost only $27.4mn to implement, while 40mph in areas with 100,000 people would cost $260mn to implement. The most expensive by far would be the $2.9mn implementation of a 40mph speed limit for ethanol and crude trains in all areas.

Retrofit costs for tank cars could cost anywhere from $1,200 for a bottom outlet valve handle to $23,000 for a full jacket to be added to the car.

The DOT estimates a total of 334,869 tank cars are in service, with 42,550 in crude service and 29,708 in ethanol service. Of existing tank cars used to haul crude, 22,800 are non-jacketed DOT-111s, 5,500 are jacketed DOT-111s. There are an estimated 4,850 of the newer model jacketed CPC-1232 cars and 9,400 non-jacketed CPC 1232 cars in crude service.

New cars may have to be built with thicker outer shells and equipped with electronically controlled pneumatic braking systems and rollover protection. Cars built in accordance with design rules voluntarily adopted by the industry in 2011 may have to be retrofit, depending on the standards DOT ultimately settles on.

The agency also is considering three speed limits for crude trains that contain tank cars not built up to the new standards. The first would require a 40mph speed limit across the network, the second a 40mph speed limit in high-threat urban areas and the third a 40mph speed limit in areas with a population of 100,000 or more. Cars built in accordance with DOT’s new design standards will be allowed to operate at 50mph in all areas.

The rules further would require shippers show a rigid written sampling and testing program for mined liquid and gases is in place and make information available to DOT on request.

The rulemaking package is now open for a 60-day public comment period. DOT is requesting feedback on three options for enhancing tank car standards.

An estimated 59pc of all crude produced in North Dakota left by rail, according to state figures. It is too soon say to say whether or not the new DOT rules could impact Bakken output, the state’s director of the Department of Mineral Resources Lynn Helms said.

Bakken Crude, Crude By Rail, Federal Regulation (U.S.), Hazardous cargo transparency, Hazmat notification

Norfolk Southern sues to block disclosure of crude oil shipments

Repost from McClatchy DC

Norfolk Southern sues to block disclosure of crude oil shipments

By Curtis Tate, McClatchy Washington Bureau, July 24, 2014 
A Norfolk Southern crude oil train barrels east through Columbia, Pa., on March 22, 2014. The train runs parallel to the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania and Maryland on its way to the PBF Energy refinery in Delaware City, Del. On Wednesday, the railroad sued the state of Maryland to prevent the disclosure of information about the shipments, including their routes and frequencies. McClatchy and the Associated Press had requested the documents through the state Public Information Act. CURTIS TATE — McClatchy

WASHINGTON — A major hauler of crude oil by rail has sued the state of Maryland to stop the public release of information about the shipments, according to court documents.

The suit was filed Wednesday, the same day the U.S. Department of Transportation announced proposed rules to improve the safety of crude oil shipments by rail. Several serious oil train accidents resulting in spills, fires and fatalities have increased scrutiny on the industry.

Rail companies prefer to keep details about crude oil shipments confidential and some states have agreed, but others have decided that the records can be made public.

Several states – including California, Washington, Illinois and Florida – have fulfilled open records requests from news organizations and others. Though rail companies didn’t want the information made public, none had pursued a legal challenge to block its release.

The Maryland suit, triggered by a state Public Information Act request from McClatchy and the Associated Press, appears to be the first time a railroad has gone to court over the issue.

Norfolk Southern, a major Eastern rail company based in Norfolk, Va., filed the suit in the Circuit Court for Baltimore City to seek a temporary restraining order and a permanent injunction to prevent the release of the information the two news organizations requested.

The Maryland Department of the Environment had given the railroad until Thursday to challenge its decision to release the information. In a letter to McClatchy, the department wrote that it expected a similar lawsuit from CSX, a rival Eastern rail carrier.

Norfolk Southern declined to comment.

In May, following a series of derailments that involved crude oil from North Dakota’s Bakken shale region, the USDOT required rail companies to notify state emergency management officials about shipments of 1 million gallons or more of Bakken oil within state borders.

The notifications were intended primarily to help fire departments better prepare for potential derailments. Railroads asked state officials to sign confidentiality agreements _ citing concerns about security and competition _ and initially, the USDOT advised states to comply.

But in response to numerous state open-records requests, the department eventually conceded that no federal law protected the information from public disclosure.

According to the suit filed by Norfolk Southern, Thomas Levering, the director of emergency preparedness and planning for the Maryland Department of the Environment, signed such a confidentiality agreement May 28.

McClatchy filed a Public Information Act request for the information on June 10.

On June 13, the railroad received a letter from the office of Maryland Attorney General Douglas Gansler voiding the confidentiality agreement. It said Levering had “no legal authority” to sign the agreement and that it was in conflict with the state open records law. Gansler’s office declined to comment for this story.

On June 27, Norfolk Southern sent a letter objecting to the attorney general’s claims. The railroad argued that the crude oil shipment information enjoyed “mandatory protection” under state law because it contained “confidential commercial information.”

The railroad also wrote that state law protects information that could “jeopardize the security of a facility or facilitate the planning of a terrorist attack.”

The federal government has nearly sole jurisdiction over rail transportation and transportation security, and neither the USDOT or the Transportation Security Administration considers information about crude oil shipments by rail “security sensitive.”

The Norfolk Southern suit provides a glimpse of the rail industry’s thinking on the issue. In an affidavit that accompanies the injunction request, the railroad concedes that much of the information in the crude oil notifications is already publicly available.

Michael McClellan, Norfolk Southern’s vice president for industrial products, wrote that information about rail lines and the customers they serve is available from various sources, including rail enthusiast websites and the railroads themselves.

He also noted that information about the processing capacity of oil refineries and rail terminals can be found on Wikipedia. But he said specific knowledge about crude oil routes and volumes would give an advantage to the railroad’s competitors, including other train lines, as well as trucking, pipeline and marine vessel operators, potentially reducing Norfolk Southern’s market share.

In another affidavit, Carl Carbaugh, the railroad’s director of infrastructure security, wrote that terrorist Internet postings and publications have identified the U.S. freight rail network as a potential target.

Carbaugh wrote that “understanding where and when trains operate is difficult to discern without routing information or knowing type and volume of commodity shipped,” and publicizing such details “undercuts an inherent strength” in the industry’s risk profile.

But he also conceded that it’s impossible to build a fence around 250,000 miles of track across the country. The biggest security problem most railroads face is from trespassers and theft of consumer goods from stopped trains.

Of the roughly 16 major derailments involving shipments of crude oil or ethanol since 2006, none was the result of a terrorist attack. Though some of those accidents are still under investigation, most were caused by mechanical failure or human error.

Bakken Crude, Crude By Rail, DOT-111, Ethanol, Federal Regulation (U.S.), Train speed

DOT proposes stricter oil train safety rules

Repost from Politico

DOT proposes stricter oil train safety rules

By Kathryn A. Wolfe  | 7/23/14
Anthony Foxx is pictured. | M.Scott Mahaskey/POLITICO
Anthony Foxx’s announcement follows a year-long spree of oil train crashes. | M.Scott Mahaskey/POLITICO

The Obama administration on Wednesday announced its long-awaited proposal to improve the safety of oil trains, a step meant to address a series of fiery derailments that have raised fears about the dark side of the North American energy boom.

The proposed rules include mandates for phasing out older, less-sturdy rail tank cars during the next two to five years, tightened speed limits, improved brakes and steps to address concerns that crude oil produced in North Dakota’s Bakken region is unusually volatile or flammable. The rules also include provisions that would affect the shipment of ethanol, another flammable liquid frequently transported by rail.

“We need a new world order on how this stuff moves,” Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx told reporters in making the announcement.

“More crude oil is being shipped by rail than ever before,” Foxx said. “If America is going to be a world leader in producing energy, our job at this department is to ensure that we’re also a world leader in safely transporting it.”

The details of the White House-vetted proposal had been the subject of fierce lobbying by the oil industry, which maintains that Bakken crude doesn’t pose unusual dangers, and the railroads, which have long called for tougher tank-car standards but objected to calls for reduced speed limits. The rules would offer both industries incentives to go along — for instance, oil trains meeting the toughened standards for crashworthiness and brakes could travel as fast as 50 mph in all areas, while those that don’t could be limited to 30 mph or 40 mph.

“The fact that the proposed rule incorporates several of the voluntary operating practices we have already implemented demonstrates the railroad industry’s ongoing commitment to rail safety,” Ed Hamberger, CEO of the Association of American Railroads, said in a statement Wednesday. “We look forward to providing data-driven analyses of the impacts various provisions of the proposal will have on both freight customers and passenger railroads that ship millions of tons of goods and serve millions of commuters and travelers across the nationwide rail network every day.”

The American Petroleum Institute initially said it would review the proposal, but it later blasted out a statement rejecting “speculation by the Department of Transportation” about the safety of transporting Bakken crude.

“Multiple studies have shown that Bakken crude is similar to other crudes,” CEO Jack Gerard said. “DOT needs to get this right and make sure that its regulations are grounded in facts and sound science, not speculation.”

The DOT proposal drew initial praise from lawmakers, along with some calls to go further.

Wednesday’s rollout followed months of interim rules and voluntary agreements with the railroad and oil industries. It also came after a year-long spree of oil train crashes in communities from Quebec and North Dakota to western Pennsylvania, rural Alabama and Lynchburg, Virginia — including one that killed 47 people in the Canadian town of Lac-Mégantic last July.

Even without any fatalities so far in the U.S., oil train accidents in 2014 have already shattered records for property damage, based on POLITICO’s review of data from the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration. As of late May — a month after the Lynchburg derailment — the damage toll exceeded $10 million through mid-May, nearly triple the damage for all of 2013. The number of incidents at that point in the year — 70 — was also on pace to set a record.

Oil trains have also inspired local opposition in communities from Albany, New York, to Washington state and the San Francisco Bay area, where residents expressed alarm at finding that they had become key way stations in a network of virtual pipelines that carry oil from production hot spots like North Dakota and western Canada.

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) urged DOT to see that the rules are “finalized, implemented and enforced as soon as possible.”

“These desperately needed safety regulations will phase out the aged and explosion-prone … tanker cars that are hauling endless streams of highly flammable crude oil through communities across the country and New York,” Schumer said in a statement Wednesday.

Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.) said the proposal “appears to be comprehensive,” adding that “we will continue to review these proposed standards to ensure they are workable and will keep our communities safe.”

But Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) who chairs the Appropriations subcommittee overseeing DOT, said in a statement that “there is still more work to be done, by both regulators and industry.”

“I’m pleased that the proposed regulations address issues I outlined in the 2015 transportation spending bill, like enhanced rail tank car standards and improved classification of flammable liquids, that are much-needed steps to improve the safety of our rail system,” Murray said.