Category Archives: Crude By Rail

Bakken Crude, Crude By Rail, Derailment, Explosion, Fire, Oil spill, Rivers, Water quality

UPDATE: West Virginia derailment, explosion, evacuation, river-spill

February 16, 2015 Roger Straw

Repost from WVNSTV.com, Ghent, WV
[Editor: Significant quote: “Crews said oil is burning everywhere. There are some environmental concerns if the oil is under the frozen spots in the river. Crews on the scene said that the oil in those locations will not burn and will have ‘all kinds of negative impacts on the water.'” – RS]

LATEST: Boomer evacuated due to train derailment fire

By Douglas Fritz, Feb 16, 2015, Updated

4:30 p.m. UPDATE:

Train derailment in the area of Boomer Bottom and Adena Village leads to evacuations. Photo Courtesy: Dan Toney

Firefighters with the Boomer Fire Department said that there have been at least six explosions in connection with the fire that started from a CSX train that derailed in the Powelltown Hollow area of Fayette County on Monday, Feb. 16, 2015. The derailment happened at around 1:30 p.m. As a result, the entire town of Boomer was evacuated by 4:30 p.m. [BI Editor: population 615 in 2010 census]

The train was traveling from North Dakota to Yorktown, VA carrying crude oil. The scene extends along WV Route 61, near Armstrong Creek road. According to firefighters, the largest explosion happened near a house that was between the railroad tracks and the Kanawha River. They do not believe anyone was home at the time. State Troopers said there have been no fatalities reported.

Boomer has been evacuated as a result of a fire caused by a train derailment in Powelltown Hollow, WV.

Crews said oil is burning everywhere. There are some environmental concerns if the oil is under the frozen spots in the river. Crews on the scene said that the oil in those locations will not burn and will have “all kinds of negative impacts on the water.”

3:00 p.m., UPDATE:

Water intakes in Montgomery and Cedar Grove have been closed because of the train accident along the Kanawha River. That is according to the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources Bureau for Public Health.

It is confirmed that the train was carrying crude oil, some of which spilled into the Kanawha River. While the intakes are closed, customers are urged to conserve water. The Montgomery Water System is part of West Virginia American Water Co. The company released a statement regarding the accident.

“West Virginia American Water is aware of the train derailment just east of Montgomery on the Fayette-Kanawha County line. The Montgomery water treatment plant, which draws water from the Kanawha River a few miles downstream of the accident, was shut down at approximately 2:30 p.m.,” said Laura Jordan, the External Affairs Manager. “Customers in the Montgomery area are asked to conserve water and only use it for essential functions at this time. West Virginia American Water is working with emergency responders and the Bureau for Public Health on continued response efforts.”

The West Virginia State Police expanded the evacuation order for the area at around 3:15 p.m. to include anyone with half of a mile of the fire. Anyone who is not responding to the scene as a part of the emergency crews is asked to avoid the area.

2:30 p.m., UPDATE:

Dispatchers have announced that the towns of Adena Village and Boomer Bottom are being evacuated because of a nearby train derailment.

Officials said Route 61 is being shut down as a result of the derailment. A shelter is being set up at Valley Elementary School for people who are being evacuated.

According to Lawrence Messina, communications director for the West Virginia Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety, at least one tanker has fallen into the river, and authorities believe crude oil is in the tanker. Messina said officials were unsure if anything else was in the tanker.Messina said the Department of Environmental Protection also was responding to the accident to assess the situation.

2:21 p.m., Original Story:

Firefighters and emergency crews have responded to a train accident in Montgomery, WV busy.

The accident happened at about 1:30 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 16, 2015. Details on what exactly happened are still limited at this time. Officials have said that a train has derailed. The location of the accident is near Montgomery, within a four mile radius. Watch for updates hear and on the air as information becomes available.

Bakken Crude, Crude By Rail, Derailment, Explosion, Fire, Oil spill, Rivers, Water quality

LATEST DERAILMENT: WV train derailment causes massive fire, evacuations (raw video)

February 16, 2015 Roger Straw

Repost from The Los Angeles Times

West Virginia train derailment causes massive fire, evacuations

By Ryan Parker, Feb 16, 2015, 1:31pm

A train derailment Monday afternoon in West Virginia caused multiple explosions and a massive fire, officials said.

At least one home near the derailment in Fayette County caught fire and has been destroyed, according to Lawrence Messina, the state’s public safety spokesman.

The derailment happened about 1:20 p.m. Eastern time, Messina said. Three hours later, the fire was still burning, he said.

The CSX train was hauling crude oil, which is leaking from at least one of the cars, Messina said. There are no reported injuries, he said.

“Our concern is oil is leaking into the Kanawha River,” he said. Two water intakes downstream from the treatment plant have been shut down, he said.

CSX acknowledged that the company was aware of the situation. “We are working with first responders on the scene to ensure the safety of the community,” it said on Twitter.

Some of the tanker cars exploded, and oil on a portion of the river is on fire, according to the office of Kanawha County Emergency Management & Floodplain Management, which was assisting in the response.

Kanawha County is downriver from Fayette County.

Adena Village, near the derailment, has been evacuated, and authorities were beginning to evacuate homes across the river from the fire about 4:30 p.m., Messina said. At least 100 people have been evacuated, he said.

Fayette County is about 60 miles southeast of Charleston.

Pictures on social media, which a spokesman for the Montgomery Fire Department confirmed were of the scene, showed fire engulfing the train.

Heavy snow is falling in the area, but Messina said it is unclear if that will help extinguish the fire.

Crude By Rail, Health and safety impacts, Health impacts, Oil Industry, Oil producers, Rail industry, Risk Assessment

Safety warning from British Health & Safety Executive

February 15, 2015 Roger Straw

Repost from Health & Safety Executive (HSE), Great Britain
[Editor: CONTEXT – I received this in an email from Fred Millar, independent consultant and expert on chemical safety and railroad transportation. Fred’s email comment puts the British commentary in a “North American oil-train” perspective: “Impact of falling oil prices may be quite small re volumes of Crude By Rail shipments, some informed observers have noted. But this UK HSE message highlights a likely, less visible but no less ominous impact: dangerous lowering of safety standards in the oil industry [and by implication in the newly important “pipeline on rails” railroads carrying crude oil and other hazmat]. If this impact had not been seen previously at significant levels by safety agencies, there would be no need for such blunt alarums, of course.” – RS]

No Compromise

By Judith Hackitt, HSE Chair, 2/6/15

The impacts of falling oil prices is having a wide ranging effect in the UK – from the lower cost of filling up the car to people’s livelihoods being under threat.

It is inevitable companies seek to adapt to rapidly changing circumstances and the decisions they are being forced to make are tough ones. It’s actually a stress test of leadership and senior management.

Part of that test is whether company decision makers have all the relevant information to make informed decisions.

How can they?

At the very least they have to make assumptions about what the future will look like. In this case, how long oil prices will stay at these levels? What decisions are competitor companies and industries taking? After all, they need to be making the right decisions for the company in the short term and for the mid to long term.

We’ve been here before, of course, in the 1990s when oil prices dropped and assumptions were made about the long term life of North Sea assets that proved to be wide of the mark. So this is a time when corporate memory really counts.

On that occasion the assumption was made that North Sea production would be wound down in the medium term and assets could afford to be neglected because they would soon be out of service. As prices rose again, the assets were called upon to continue to produce and many are now operating well beyond their original life expectancy. Doing that has required huge effort by the North Sea Oil and Gas industry to bring those neglected assets back up to the required standard.

Those who have led this effort to improve asset integrity deserve to be praised, but their voices need to continue to be heard as we go through this next difficult phase for the industry.

Cutting costs where there seems to be least tangible day-to-day effect is obviously tempting but leaders and senior managers need to pass the stress test on knowing where health and safety – and particularly process safety and asset integrity – sits in this mix.

Asset integrity must not suffer from short term expediency over where the axe falls. Leadership is critical to avoid wrong assumptions being made about the lifespan of assets, assumptions we know from previous experience can take years to reverse.

Current news headlines may be disconcerting, but I want all industries dealing with process safety to avoid inadvertently writing tomorrow’s headlines today.

Safety must not be compromised, even in tough times.

Crude By Rail, Derailment, Ontario CA

Latest derailment: crude oil train derails, catches fire in Northern Ontario

February 15, 2015 Roger Straw

Repost from The Globe and Mail
[Editor: See later update on Canoe: 29 of 100 cars derailed. Of those, 7 are burning. “Some of the derailed cars are broken and scattered along the side of the tracks where the snow is chest deep.” UPDATES ON MONDAY 2/16: Financial Post (main railway line blocked, trains delayed; fire still burning), and Globe & Mail (cleanup underway, bitter cold, spill contained, no waterways affected). No photos yet. – RS]

CN train carrying crude oil derails, catches fire in Northern Ontario

By Eric Atkins, Feb. 15 2015

A CN train in North Vancouver. (Jonathan Hayward/The Canadian Press)

A Canadian National Railway Ltd. train carrying 100 tank cars of crude oil has derailed and caught fire in Northern Ontario.

A CN spokesman said there were no injuries in the derailment that happened around midnight on Saturday about 80 kilometres south of Timmins, Ont., on the CN mainline in a remote area inaccessible by road.

Timmins_Ontario_CA_600

Rob Johnston, an investigations team manager with the Transportation Safety Board, said about 25 cars jumped the tracks and an unknown number are still on fire early on Sunday afternoon. He said the train was travelling eastbound at 40 miles an hour when the crew felt an impact and saw flames about 10 cars behind the locomotive. They halted the train and detached the engines and pulled ahead, according to safety procedures.

The TSB investigators, who are not yet on the scene, will face difficult conditions determining the amount of any spill and the cause due to the site’s remote location and the cold weather, Mr. Johnston said in an interview.

“There is a fire at the scene,” said Patrick Waldron. “CN has initiated its emergency response plan and has crews responding to the site. That includes firefighting and environmental crews and equipment.”

The increase in the amount of crude moving on the rails has raised safety concerns that were highlighted by the 2013 tragedy in Lac Megantic, Que., where a runaway train derailed, exploded and killed 47 people. Since then, governments in Canada and the United States have begun phasing in tougher crash standards for tank cars and lower speeds for oil trains. But several trains carrying oil and other petroleum products have crashed and caught fire since the tragedy in Lac Megantic, including derailments in New Brunswick and Saskatchewan in 2014.

Oil producers have increasingly used trains to move crude amid a shortage of pipeline space, and to enjoy the flexibility railways offer. The plunge in oil prices has dampened growth in the crude-by-rail business since the fall, but the number of trains carrying oil is expected to rise this year as new terminals are opened.