Repost from YouTube, Constance Beutel
Published on Jul 10, 2014
This simulation demonstrates what could happen if an oil tanker car derailed in Benicia, California’s Industrial Park.
(Animation by Don Shields. Video Production by Constance Beutel. Benicia, CA)
Repost from Fox40 TV Sacramento / Stockton / Modesto
[Editor: Thank you, Davis! Thank you, Assemblyman Roger Dickinson! Thank you Fox40! – RS]
SACRAMENTO – Activists concerned about the danger of crude oil train shipments through populated areas took part in a national day of action Wednesday, including events in Sacramento and Davis.
Laurie Litman heads up 350 Sacramento, a group concerned about global warming. She notes that shipments of crude oil in California have increased 1,300 percent over the past four years.
Litman circulated a map at a rally outside a federal building in Sacramento showing neighborhoods and schools that would be affected by a fiery oil spill like the one that killed 47 people in Quebec, Canada a year ago.
“These are not fires that can be put out. They need to burn out, so if that happens when a train comes through the middle of Sacramento, we are in trouble” Litman said.
Sacramento Assembly Member Roger Dickinson addressed the gathering, telling them that emergency agency need to know what volatile oil shipments are being transported and when. He has authored a bill requiring rail companies to provide that information and have access to real time communications gear to get information to local officials.
Several rail spills occurred in areas where emergency responders had no little information of what was spilled.
“To assure that we get the information that we need, and the information that we need in a timely way,” said Dickinson.
Many at the rally were advocating a reduction in the use of crude oil as a long term solution to the threat of oil derailments.
“It’s not if, it’s when because it has happened before,” David Link, of the Sacramento Electrical Vehicle Association, said Wednesday.
Activists in Davis are particularly concerned about a plan to run 100 oil tank cars a day through Downtown Davis to a Valero refinery in Benecia. If approved, the trains would go from Roseville thorough Sacramento past Davis.
They handed out leaflets and circulated petitions at the Davis Rail Station.
[Editor: All across the U.S., media reports are focusing on how the States are responding to the new Federal rules on disclosure of crude by rail shipments. Some states are making these disclosures available to the public, and some are withholding the reports. Here is a sampling of the articles Mr. Google found today…. – RS]
Oregon fire marshal delays posting oil train reports online, has no …
The Oregonian-2 hours ago
Repost from The Vallejo Times-Herald, Letters
The Benicia Planning commission will take public comments tonight at City Hall on the Draft Environmental Impact Report for Valero’s Crude by Rail project. Written comments are due by Aug. 1. This project would bring 100 rail cars a day over the Donner Pass or through the Feather River Canyon, over rivers, through Truckee, Roseville, Sacramento, Davis, Dixon, Fairfield, the Suisun Marsh and into Benicia.
These trains could be carrying the same Bakken Crude that exploded in Canada, killing 47 people and Canadian Tar Sands, which have proved impossible to clean up when it has spilled in waterways. Some have claimed this is safe. Everyone should be aware that the National Transportation Safety Board in January said that trains carrying crude oil should “where technically feasible require rerouting to avoid transportation of such hazardous materials through populated and other sensitive areas.” At this point in time it is feasible to keep these dangerous materials from going through populated areas by not approving the project. Otherwise it will not be feasible.
The new railcars that Valero says it will use are the same ones that ruptured and spilled April 30, 2014 in Lynchburg, Virginia, threatening Richmond’s water supply. The Department of Transportation is in the process of crafting new rules for rail cars carrying crude, but there is no time line for when they will be issued and it will be some time before any new cars are available. There have been two train derailments in Benicia’s Industrial Park in recent months.
Why the rush? Is Valero running out of crude oil? No. The reason Valero wants to bring in this dangerous crude, in rail cars that split and rupture in a derailment, is that this crude oil is on sale right now. The oil isn’t going anywhere. It isn’t safe to transport through populated areas and all of the communities that this crude goes through will be at risk.