Repost from Oregon Public Broadcasting [Editor: Would someone please get California candidates to talk about the pollution and derailment dangers of oil trains?? – RS]
Inslee, Bryant Agree To Disagree Over Oil Trains In Washington
By Emily Schwing Northwest News Network | Aug. 18, 2016 2:58 p.m. | Updated: Aug. 19, 2016 8:57 a.m.
Chris Hooper, right, of White Salmon watches the fire caused by a derailed oil train in Mosier, Oregon, near Hood River in the Columbia River Gorge on Friday, June 3, 2016. John Sepulvado/OPB
Washington gubernatorial candidates touched on the topic of oil trains during their first debate of the season in Spokane Wednesday.
Republican challenger Bill Bryant said oil trains are something he and incumbent Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee agree on.
“If they are going to be bringing in highly flammable material and bringing in oil, they better be bringing it in on cars that meet safety standards and on rails that are safe enough to transport that commodity,” Bryant said.
If elected, Bryant said he’d put a moratorium on any new state regulations. That’s why Inslee said he disagrees with his opponent.
“The very first thing I heard my opponent say today is ‘all regulations are bad.’ This is the only way we are going to get more safety on railroads,” Inslee said. “These sound bites can come back to prevent us from making progress.”
Inslee called for reduced train speeds, improved track inspections and support for electronic braking systems.
Spokane’s city council has spent the last month wrestling with whether local government can regulate the shipment of volatile crude oil within city limits. Debate over that question has grown since an oil train derailed in Oregon’s Columbia River Gorge in June.
The candidates also debated over an economic development project west of Spokane that includes a casino. Inslee signed off on the project in June. He said the Spokane County project is part of his larger effort to bolster rural economies.
“It’s gonna be decades of work, there’s gonna be tons of economic development associated with this,” Inslee said.
The Spokane Indian Tribe expects to break ground next month on the casino, as well as shops, restaurants, a cultural center — and it’s happening a mile from Fairchild Air Force Base.
Inslee said he had meetings with high-ranking officials before he signed off.
“I was not going to build a casino and lose Fairchild. I was not going to do that,” Inslee said. “The guy in the Pentagon told me that and I’m taking that to the bank.”
Fairchild is the largest employer in Spokane County. Inslee’s Republican Challenger Bill Bryant expressed concerns about base expansion in the future.
“One thing I learned from the apple industry is you better make sure what you’re planting today, is what you want to harvest in four or seven years,” he said.
If elected, Bryant suggested he might develop a 10-year plan to work with the military.
Repost from the Recorder, Greenfield, MA [Editor: Important for Benicia as we consider permitting Valero Crude by Rail: “Progress varies considerably by railroad. For example, BNSF has equipped 4,309 of its 5,000 locomotives, but Union Pacific has equipped only 13 of its 5,656 locomotives.” If permitted, Valero would be served by Union Pacific trains. – RS]
Railroads show little progress on key safety technology
By Joan Lowy, Associated Press, Wednesday, August 17, 2016
In this Wednesday, May 13, 2015 photo, emergency personnel work at the scene of a derailment in Philadelphia of an Amtrak train headed to New York. Many commuter and freight railroads have made little progress installing safety technology designed to prevent deadly collisions and derailments despite a mandate from Congress, according to a government report released Wednesday. AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File
WASHINGTON — Many commuter and freight railroads have made little progress installing safety technology designed to prevent deadly collisions and derailments despite a mandate from Congress, according to a government report released Wednesday.
The technology, called positive train control or PTC, uses digital radio communications, GPS and signals alongside tracks to monitor train positions. It can automatically stop or slow trains to prevent them from disobeying signals, derailing due to excessive speed, colliding with another train or entering track that is off-limits.
The Federal Railroad Administration report shows that while some railroads have made substantial progress, others have yet to equip a single locomotive or track segment with the technology, or install a single radio tower.
Congress passed a law in 2008 giving railroads seven years to put the technology in place, and last year extended that deadline for three more years after railroads said they were unable to meet the first deadline. The law extending the deadline to Dec. 31, 2018, also allows the railroad administration to grant additional extensions for two more years to railroads that have installed PTC but are still testing the systems.
Railroads shouldn’t wait for the deadline to complete their work on PTC, said Sarah Feinberg, head of the railroad administration.
“Every day that passes without PTC, we risk adding another preventable accident to a list that is already too long,” she said in a statement.
So far, PTC is in operation on nine percent of freight route miles and 22 percent of passenger train miles, the report said.
Freight railroads have equipped 34 percent of their locomotives, installed 73 percent of their radio towers and completed 11 percent of their track segments. Passenger railroads have equipped 29 percent of their locomotives, installed 46 percent of their radio towers, and completed 12 percent of their track segments.
But progress varies considerably by railroad. For example, BNSF has equipped 4,309 of its 5,000 locomotives, but Union Pacific has equipped only 13 of its 5,656 locomotives.
The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, which operates commuter trains in the Philadelphia region, has equipped all its locomotives, installed all its radio towers and completed all its track segments. But nearby New Jersey Transit Rail, which carries an average of 308,000 passengers on weekdays, hasn’t equipped any locomotives, installed any radio towers or completed any track segments.
The report also gave zeros in each of those categories to New York’s largest commuter railroads, the Metro-North and the Long Island railroads, which each carry about 300,000 passengers on weekdays. In 2013, a speeding Metro-North train derailed while going around a curve in the Bronx. Four people were killed and more than 60 injured. The National Transportation Safety Board said the accident could have been prevented if PTC had been in operation.
The report is based on information supplied by the railroads.
The report “is an overall summary that does not convey the progress we have achieved,” said Nancy Snyder, a spokeswoman for New Jersey Transit. She noted that the railroad has acquired spectrum rights, equipped four “prototype vehicles” for testing and installed five antennas in a demonstration area, among other actions.
Beth DeFalco, a spokeswoman for the Metro-North and Long Island railroads, said the railroads have done extensive work on PTC and hope to see benefits from the technology as soon as next year.
The NTSB has urged railroads to install positive train control or earlier train control technologies for more than four decades. The board says that over that time it has investigated at least 145 PTC-preventable accidents in which about 300 people were killed and 6,700 injured.
More recently, the board has said PTC could have prevented the head-on collision of two BNSF trains in June near Panhandle, Texas. Three railroad employees were killed in the crash. The technology also could have prevented the derailment of a speeding Amtrak train in Philadelphia last year. Eight people were killed and over 200 injured in the crash.
Commuter railroads have spent $950 million on PTC so far, but the total cost is estimated to be at least $3.48 billion, said Richard A. White, acting president of the American Public Transportation Association. The White House requested Congress provide $1.25 billion in the coming 2017 federal budget year to help commuter railroads with PTC; House and Senate spending bills allocate only $199 million.
“Despite this funding dilemma, the industry is moving forward with this top safety priority,” White said in a statement.
Repost from Water Online [Editor: Significant quote: “The concentration that we found (of benzene) was 1,800 parts per billion, which is approximately ten times higher than a screening level for what would concern us for animals living in a wetland.” – RS]
Oil Train Crash Left Benzene Contamination In Groundwater
A town in Oregon is still reeling from a train derailment two months ago, discovering the crash leaked oil into the groundwater supply.
A Union Pacific oil train derailed in Oregon’s Columbia River Gorge in June, raising concerns about nearby water service and knocking the wastewater system completely out of function in the town of Mosier. In the aftermath of the initial crisis, officials are facing down water contamination, seeking treatment remedies for lingering pollution.
They found “elevated concentrations of benzene and other volatile organic compounds in groundwater near the derailment site,” OPB reported.
“The concentration that we found (of benzene) was 1,800 parts per billion, which is approximately ten times higher than a screening level for what would concern us for animals living in a wetland,” Bob Schwarz of the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality told OPB.
State environmental authorities plan “to install a treatment system that injects air into the underground water. They say the oxygen will stimulate the existing microbes that live in the water to break down the oil,” KATU reported.
The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality installed “four monitoring wells to observe ground water quality after the wreck. Schwartz said one of them had significant oil contamination from the train derailment,” the report said.
Schwartz provided an update to KATU News.
“The numbers we’re concerned about are based on the potential of long-term impact … if animals were exposed over many years. In this case, we don’t expect it to be significant because we plan to get out there and remove the contamination within weeks or months,” Schwartz said. “I think this is something we will be able to clean up fairly quickly so I don’t think it will be a significant problem.”
One positive sign amid the wreckage: Drinking water wells for this town remain unaffected, the report said. They were uphill from the crash site.
Mosier lost access to its sewer system and wastewater treatment plant as a result of the incident, which saw 16 of the train’s 96 tank cars go off the rails, according to the Associated Press.
Eight freight cars derail at Selkirk CSX rail yard
By Kevin O’Toole, August 13, 2016, 8:42 pm, News10, Albany
SELKIRK, N.Y. (NEWS10) — Emergency crews responded to a train derailment at the CSX Rail Yark in Selkirk, N.Y. Saturday evening.
A CSX representative told News10 that around 7 p.m. Saturday eight cars of a CSX freight train derailed.
There are no reports of leaks or injuries from the incident.
The CSX representative said the train cars were carrying intermodal freight from Chicago to North Bergen, N.J.
Emergency crews are still assessing the scene, and CSX says the investigation to identify the cause of the derailment will begin once the scene is safe.
Contractors are on standby to help clean up the site, and clear the derailed cars once crews have finished assessing the scene.
Union Pacific train derails in SW Arkansas
31 railroad cars derail on Highway 82 causing major traffic snarl
By Nancy Cook, 08/15 2016 10:50AM, ArkLaTex.comDerailment – Lafayette County, Arkansas
LAFAYETTE COUNTY, Ark. | A Union Pacific train derailed just outside of Lewisville, Arkansas this afternoon, causing a traffic slowdown on Highway 82 that is expected to cause delays throughout the day Monday, though there were no injuries.
Lafayette County Sheriff Obie Sims says the call came in about the train derailment involving 31 cars around 12:45 p.m. today.
Lewisville is about 20 miles south of Texarkana, and Highway 82 is the main thoroughfare to Texarkana from Magnolia and Hope.
The tracks run parallel to Highway 82, which has been reduced to one lane during the clean-up. Sims said the cleanup will continue throughout Monday, and until it’s complete, traffic will be very slow.
The cars were carrying frac sand, which is made from sandstone and is not hazardous, but, Sims said, made a mess and “ripped up the bridge.”
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