Category Archives: Crude By Rail

Crude By Rail, East coast refineries, High Hazard Flammable Trains (HHFTs)

U.S. East Coast is key crude-by-rail destination

Repost from Oil Change International
[Editor:  Excellent 8-page report.  Interesting for folks on both coasts, and critical for those along the rails in the Midwest and Eastern states!  TAKE NOTE: Does this report describe our future on the west coast?  – RS]

U.S. East Coast is key crude-by-rail destination

By Lorne Stockman, July 22, 2015

Cover_ OCI-East Coast CBR-July 2015_FINALAn examination of crude-by-rail data shows that the U.S. east coast has become one of the busiest regional destinations for hazardous crude-by-rail traffic. Oil Change International used publicly available Department of Energy (EIA) data as well as subscription data from Genscape to examine the growth of crude-by-rail to one of the most densely populated areas of the United States.

Key Findings:

  • An average of 450,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude was delivered by rail to the east coast region in 2014.
  • Around 50% of all crude-by-rail is unloaded in the wider east coast region (PADD 1).
  • Around 50% of the crude oil input to six east coast refineries is supplied by rail.
  • Over 80% of the crude oil delivered by rail to the region comes from North Dakota (Bakken crude).
  • Canada is the next biggest source of crude-by- rail for the region at around 12%.
  • Five key terminals account for 73% of the unloading capacity and around 65% of the throughput of the region’s crude-by-rail terminals.

This briefing provides additional information on crude-by-rail to the east coast. For further information on crude-by-rail see www.priceofoil/rail

Download Full Report

Bakken Crude, Blast zone, Crude By Rail, Derailment, Fire, Phillips 66, San Francisco Bay Area, Santa Maria Refinery, Stop Oil Trains Week of Action #StopOilTrains, Valero Benicia Refinery

Oil train organizing in Davis, California

Repost from an email, Lynne Nittler, of Davis, CA
[Editor:  Lynne Nittler and her friends at Cool Davis and Yolano Climate Action do a great job of organizing.  Davis is a primary “uprail community” that would be at high risk if Valero Benicia Refinery’s Crude By Rail proposal is permitted.  I appreciated Lynne’s recent update and summary, below.  – RS]

Oil Train: photos, Ca Energy Commission powerpoint, & actions

From: Lynne Nittler
Sent: Wednesday, July 22, 2015 3:15 PM

Dear oil train friends,

1.  July 11 Stop Oil Trains Action –  photos

On July 11, over 80 Davis residents turned out to remember the 2013 oil derailment that decimated Lac-Megantic, taking 47 lives.  Davis faces the threat of a similar accident.  Currently, at least one oil train of Bakken Crude per week passes through Davis headed to the Bay Area.  Two more 100-car trains per day are planned for the near future for the Valero Refinery in Benicia and the Phillips 66 refinery in San Luis Obispo…unless citizens stop them.

The Davis Stop Oil Trains action was one of many during the Week of Oil Train Action.  Check out photographs from actions across the country here.  Look for Davis!  https://www.flickr.com/photos/foresethics/sets/72157655110369339

See our own review with photos here:  https://yolanoclimateaction.wordpress.com/2015/07/20/davis-residents-protest-oil-trains-moving-through-town/

2.  Review of July 11:

Locally, the ForestEthics  www.Blast-Zone.org map shows endangered homes and businesses along 2nd Street including the police station, Carlton Plaza Senior Living and Rancho Yolo.  The entire Davis downtown is vulnerable along with parts of UC Davis campus and apartments complexes along Olive Drive.

The July 11 Vigil and Rally highlighted public opposition to oil trains passing through Davis. Too many residents live in the oil train blast zone, the one mile evacuation zone recommended by safety officials in the case of an oil train derailment and fire. ForestEthics calculates that nationwide, 25 million Americans live in the blast zone.

Wearing fiery red, yellow and orange shirts, Davisites met at the train station and walked through the Davis blast zone downtown to the Rotary Stage in Central Park.

We sang feisty songs led by the Raging Grannies.  We’ll be starting a group in Davis.  Let Lynne know if you’re interested.

Mayor Dan Wolk explained the city council’s resolution opposing oil by rail, available at http://citycouncil.cityofdavis.org/Media/Default/Documents/PDF/CityCouncil/CouncilMeetings/Agendas/20140422/04B-Opposing-Oil-By-Rail.pdf

City Councilman Lucas Frerichs spoke on the Sacramento Area Council of Government’s nearly unanimous decision to confront the issue.  SACOG is composed of 22 cities and 6 counties.  http://www.sacog.org/calendar/2014/08/rail/pdf/2-Valero%20EIR%20Comments.pdf

At the state level, Senator Lois Wolk shared the past and present legislative responses to the sudden surge of crude-by-rail transport into California aimed at protecting the public as well as sensitive habitat and waterways.

Supervisor Jim Provenza and Damien Luzzo focused on the extraction side of the issue in Yolo County.  Damien offered his story about how he came to oppose fracking at http://tinyurl.com/CAFrackWars and the Pledge of Resistance at http://tinyurl.com/FrackingPledgeOfResistance.  Sign his petition to ban fracking!

3.  Urgent Action:  Urge Assemblyman Bill Dodd to support SB32 & SB350!   Information on the proposed Yolo ban on fracking were available as well as a letter to Assemblyman Bill Dodd urging him to support two critical climate bills due for a vote in mid-August:

  • SB32 extending our CA carbon reduction bill, and
  • SB350 aiming for 50% lower car emissions, 50% greater building efficiency, and 50% more solar and wind-generated electricity  by 2030.

4.  Conclusion:

There is NO safe way to transport extreme tar sands and Bakken crude. Two years after Lac-Mégantic, oil trains keep exploding and carbon pollution keeps rising.  Oil trains are a disaster for our health, our safety, and our climate.

Given the unresolved dangers of crude oil transport by rail and the overload of carbon emissions already in the atmosphere, a more prudent path is to leave all extreme crude in the ground, transition to clean, renewable energy, and practice energy conservation in an effort to reverse climate change and live sustainably on a finite planet.

5.  Next oil train actions:

Powerpoint by CA Energy Commission: Read attached, a thorough and up-to-date powerpoint, to educate yourself on national and state oil and crude by rail issues in CA.  Excellent resource!

Santa Maria refinery in San Luis Obispo:  We are waiting for a hearing announcement where we can testify.

Valero Refinery in Benicia:  The revised DEIR will be released on Aug. 31 for a 45-day written public comment period.  Our letters will be crucial when the Planning commission and late the City council makes their decisions whether to finalize the EIR and permit Valero’s rail spur.

Crude By Rail

Officials seek answers in crash of runaway train car in Utica

Repost from the Rome Sentinel

Officials seek answers in crash of runaway train car in Utica

Jul 22, 2015 at 4:10pm

How did a parked train car suddenly end up careening down the tracks in west Utica Tuesday afternoon, causing a crash at the historic Union Station?

Law enforcers and county officials say that something or someone may have unlocked the brakes on the train car.

“The brake was released, the lever was released,” explained County Executive Anthony J. Picente Jr., this morning. Picente has been working with Utica Police and officials with the New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway to determine what caused the crash.

“I guess it’s not that hard to release that level,” Picente stated, based on his conversations with railway workers. “That just doesn’t happen on its own.”

No one was seriously injured in the crash.

Authorities said the single train car was parked about two miles from Union Station, near Lenox Avenue, along Route 12. Railway spokesperson Melanie Boyer said the car was loaded with plastic pellets and was awaiting a delivery. She did not know how long the car had been parked along Route 12 or when the delivery was scheduled to take place.

At some point after 5 p.m., the brakes were released on the car and it started rolling uncontrollably down the tracks. Officials said it could have reached speeds up to 40 mph.

Prior to reaching Union Station, police said the train struck a passing car at the track intersection with Schuyler Street. The car was heavily damaged, but the driver escaped with only minor injuries.

“How that train missed so many cars and buildings is truly a blessing,” Picente said.

When it reached the station, authorities said the out-of-control train car hit a stationary locomotive that was parked on the tracks. The old, out-of-service locomotive was then pushed into the wall of the station, causing extensive damage.

No one was inside that area of the station at the time of the crash, officials said. No one inside was injured.

Officials were on the scene today assessing the damage.

“It’s really hard to tell” the extent of the damage at this point, Picente said. “There’s no damage to the main building of the train station.”

The locomotive did not hit the main Union Station building, instead hitting a secondary structure used to take passengers to the trains. The two buildings are separated by a pedestrian bridge, and Picente said they will need to find out if the crash caused any structural damage to the bridge.

The train car had not yet been removed from the side of the building as of this morning.

“Obviously, pulling it out of there will probably cause further collapse,” Picente warned. “We need to find out whether or not that walkway is secure.”

Several trains were delayed through the area around the time of the crash on Tuesday. Officials said this morning that Union Station and the tracks are back in operation.

Bakken Crude, Clean-up, Crude By Rail, Derailment, Explosion, Fire, Oil spill, Rivers, Soil contamination, Spill prevention and response, Water contamination

CSX Provides Update on W.Va. Oil Train Derailment Cleanup

Repost from ABC News

CSX Provides Update on W.Va. Oil Train Derailment Cleanup

By JOHN RABY Associated Press, Jul 21, 2015, 7:51 PM ET

GLEN FERRIS, W.Va. – CSX is continuing to closely monitor the environmental impact of a fiery oil-train derailment in southern West Virginia, a spokeswoman said Tuesday.The company held a public informational meeting that drew a sparse turnout Tuesday evening at the Glen Ferris Inn.

On Feb. 16, 27 cars of a CSX train’s 109 cars derailed during a snowstorm in Mount Carbon. Twenty of the cars leaked oil, some of which burned or was released into the ground.

Under a March consent order with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the railroad agreed to a long-term plan for cleaning up and restoring the area around the derailment.

“It’s important for the community to know that we said we would be here,” CSX spokeswoman Melanie Cost said. “This is part of that process. We want to keep the open dialogue for them.”

Donna Shabdue lives near the derailment site and was forced to evacuate her home for more than a day. She showed up to the meeting to voice her concerns about local emergency response and pleaded for quickly informing the public about future incidents.

“They need to have a plan,” she said. “We didn’t know what to do. There needs to be a siren somewhere go off to evacuate. We didn’t know what to do. I just want out of there safely.”

The train was carrying 3 million gallons of Bakken crude and headed to Yorktown, Virginia. In recent years, trains hauling crude from the Bakken region of North Dakota and Montana have been involved in fiery derailments in six states.

The Federal Railroad Administration is investigating the West Virginia accident, which shot fireballs into the sky, burned down a nearby house and caused fires on the ground that smoldered for days.

The cause of the derailment hasn’t been released. Speed had previously been ruled out as a factor. The FRA has said the train was going 33 mph at the time of the crash. The speed limit was 50 mph.

CSX said more than 181,000 gallons of crude oil was recovered after the accident. About 10,000 tons of soil has been removed and shipped for disposal. Additional soil removal is planned next to the Kanawha River and a tributary at the derailment site.

Air, water and soil sampling continues. The water monitoring is at five locations along the river, including a drinking water intake, because of the occasional presence of oil sheens. CSX said the local drinking water supply has been unaffected by the spill.

Oil-absorbing booms were attached to a metal wall more than 410 feet long in the river as an additional containment measure. The wall will eventually be taken down once the sheens are no longer detected, Cost said.

Cost declined to disclose how much the company has spent on the cleanup.