Heimdal Residents Move Forward After Oil Train Derailments
By Megan Mitchell, Nov 03, 2015 9:55 AM
Six months ago Heimdal, N.D., made headlines for a oil train derailments. The accident forced the evacuation of the entire town. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) continues to investigation the incident and is focusing on wheel fragments recovered at the scene.
No cause for the crash has been identified at this point.
The NTSB has sent the evidence the collected to a metallurgy testing lab in Washington, D.C. Metallurgists specialize in the physical and chemical behavior of metals. Their examination could take another year to complete. In the meantime, residents of Heimdal have returned to their homes and routines.
Sparky is an affectionate 9-year-old border collie cross. His friendly disposition is second only to the loyalty he has for his owners Arden and Linda Georgensen.
Arden Georgensen is a resident of Heimdal and says the dog never leaves his wife’s side.
“If I can’t find her in the yard I can find the dog. He’s always with her,” Arden said.
On May 6, 2015 neither Linda or Arden could find Sparky when they were forced to evacuate their home without their beloved dog.
“I saw this big plume I thought it was a tornado the way it looked because it was swirling,” Arden said.
An oil train derailed just half a mile from their farm, spewing 60,000 gallons of Bakken crude. That’s when firefighters came knocking.
“They said you need to get out right now ’cause if those tanks explode it’s hard to say what’ll happen out here,” Arden said.
It was a long night wondering whether Sparky would be there when they returned.
Linda went back the next morning and was overjoyed.
“It was a good feeling to see him laying there ’cause when we got home here he was by the door like usual,” Linda said.
Oil production in the Bakken has drastically declined, but tanker trains continue to roll through Heimdal every day. Despite what happened there, residents say they’re not overly concerned when they hear an engine whistle sound.
Curt Benson saw the oil train derail and was the first person to contact emergency management.
“It’s still a concern, but yeah, if you’re only getting five trains a day instead of 20 trains a day sure it’s a little less of a concern,” Benson said.
Other residents aren’t sidetracked by worry.
“You just have that risk. There’s a certain amount of risk just being alive,” Bill Ongstad said.
BNSF is still cleaning up the site, but it appears the landscape around Heimdal is almost restored.
“I have to say they did a pretty bang up job. I think seeing all of them come out here with all the equipment and the time they put in, it certainly makes you feel confident that they probably did a good job,” Benson said.
The 22 residents of Heimdal and Sparky are living in the moment and moving on.
The NTSB said the wheel fragments from the accident were sent to those metallurgy labs two and a half weeks ago.
The agency says they look at everything associated with this accident and no conclusions have been drawn.
HIGHLIGHTS:
• Feds identify broken rail as primary cause
• Flaw detected in two prior track inspections
• CSX, contractor will pay $25,000 in fines
Scorched and deformed tank cars await examination by federal investigators at Handley, W.Va., on Feb. 24, 2015. A CSX train carrying crude oil had derailed a week earlier, spilling nearly 400,000 gallons and igniting a fire that kept 100 people from their homes for four days. Curtis Tate – McClatchy
WASHINGTON – Two separate tests in the two months prior to a fiery oil train derailment in West Virginia earlier this year showed the presence of a rail defect, according to a report on the incident.
But neither the railroad nor the contractor who did the tests followed up on the results in December 2014 and January 2015, and the rail broke under a 107-car CSX train loaded with Bakken crude oil. The Feb. 16 derailment near Mount Carbon, W.Va., led to explosions, fires and the evacuation of 1,100 nearby residents.
On Friday, the Federal Railroad Administration said it had issued $25,000 civil penalties against both CSX and Sperry Rail Service, the contractor that performed the rail tests.
The railroad agency recommended that both companies enhance employee training and use improved technology. It also asked CSX to establish a plan to identify and correct track defects on routes used to ship crude oil.
Noting that track flaws are a leading cause of derailments, Sarah Feinberg, the agency’s acting administrator, said railroads hauling hazardous materials need to pay closer attention to track conditions.
“All railroads, not just CSX, must be more diligent when inspecting for internal rail flaws or when contracting out inspection work,” she said in a statement.
In a statement, CSX said it would develop additional inspection processes in collaboration with federal regulators.
“CSX intends to pursue these efforts to their maximum potential as part of our commitment to the safety of the communities where we operate, our employees and our customers,” said Kaitlyn Barrett, a spokeswoman.
According to the agency’s report, 24 of the 27 derailed tank cars sustained significant damage that released oil, fueling fires and explosions even in single-digit temperatures. One resident’s home was destroyed by fire, but no one was seriously injured or killed.
The Mount Carbon wreck was among six oil train derailments in North America this year and one of four in the U.S. All revealed vulnerabilities in the kinds of tank cars used to transport oil, as well as shortcomings in the inspection and maintenance of track and rail car wheels.
In April, the Federal Railroad Administration recommended improved wheel inspections. A broken wheel was suspected in the March 6 oil train derailment near Galena, Ill., though the agency has yet to announce an official cause.
In May, the U.S. Department of Transportation announced its final rule requiring more crash and fire resistance for tank cars used to transport flammable liquids, including crude oil and ethanol.
The recent push for improved track and tank cars in North America followed the July 2013 oil train disaster in Lac-Megantic, Quebec, where 47 people died. On Friday, a U.S. bankruptcy judge approved a $343 million settlement with the families of the victims.
Repost from OnEarth Magazine, Natural Resources Defense Council [Editor: Significant quote: “The Kalamazoo River still isn’t clean. Let’s not forget how much it cost to (not completely) clean the Kalamazoo. The current price tag is $1.21 billion (and rising), making it the most expensive onshore oil spill in U.S. history.” – RS]
Remember the Kalamazoo
Five years ago, a pipeline spilled a million gallons of tar sands crude into a Michigan river—and we’re still cleaning it up.
By Brian Palmer, July 22, 2015
Skimmers, like these used to clean up the Deepwater Horizon spill, were useless in Kalamazoo, where the tar sands crude sank to the bottom. Photo: NOAA
Five years ago, in the middle of the night, an oil pipeline operated by Enbridge ruptured outside of Marshall, Michigan. It took more than 17 hours before the Canadian company finally cut off the flow, but by then, more than a million gallons of tar sands crude had oozed into Talmadge Creek. The oil quickly flowed into the Kalamazoo River, forcing dozens of families to evacuate their homes. Oil spills of that magnitude are always disastrous, but the Kalamazoo event was historically damaging.
The first challenge was the composition of the oil. Fresh tar sands crude looks more like dirt than conventional crude—it’s far too thick to travel through a pipeline.
Try pumping this through a pipeline. Photo: Suncor
To get this crumbly mess to flow, producers thin it out with the liquid constituents of natural gas. Diluted bitumen, or dilbit, as it’s called in the tar sands industry, is approximately three parts tar sands crude, one part natural gas liquids.
When dilbit gushed into Talmadge Creek in 2010, the mixture broke apart. The volatile natural gas liquids vaporized and wafted into the surrounding neighborhoods. The airborne chemicals were so difficult to find and eliminate that Enbridge decided it would be better to simply buy some of the homes that were evacuated, preventing the residents from ever returning.
The tar sands oil, which stayed in the water, presented an even bigger chemistry problem. Most forms of oil, including conventional crude, are less dense than water. That’s why oil makes such pretty colors when dropped into a rain puddle—it floats and plays tricks with the sunlight. Traditional oil spill cleanup technology relies heavily on this density relationship. Skimmers and vacuums remove it from the surface. Floating booms prevent surface-level oil from moving into environmentally sensitive areas.
Tar sands crude behaves differently. “Tar sands bitumen is a low-grade, heavy substance,” says Anthony Swift, director of NRDC’s Canada Project (disclosure). “Unlike conventional crude, when bitumen is released into a water body, it sinks.” (See “Sink or Skim,”onEarth’s infographic on why tar sands oil is more difficult to clean up than conventional crude.)
Skimmers, like these used to clean up the Deepwater Horizon spill, were useless in Kalamazoo, where the tar sands crude sank to the bottom. Photo: NOAA
Put simply, the spilled dilbit traveled in every direction—into the air, with the current, to the bottom of the river—at the same time. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s indisputably naïve response reveals how little anyone knew about tar sands crude. The EPA demanded that Enbridge remove the oil from wetlands surrounding the pipe by August 27, a little more than one month after the spill began. The agency wanted the stuff out of the creek, river, and shorelines by the September 27. Those deadlines would have been practical for a typical spill—but not for a tar sands oil spill. A half-decade later, some of the oil still remains—though, much of that has to do with Enbridge botching the cleanup effort (see onEarth’s three-part series, “The Whistleblower”).
Enbridge’s bungling began even before the spill. First, the company knew the pipeline was vulnerable by 2005, if not earlier. When the rupture finally came in July 2010, operators dismissed the alarms as a malfunction of the system for 17 hours before finally accepting that the pipeline had failed. Making things worse, six hours after Calhoun County residents were complaining to 911 about the smell of oil, Enbridge employees were still trying to fix the problem by pumping additional oil into the pipeline. In its review of the accident, the National Transportation Safety Board faulted Enbridge’s “culture of deviance” for what happened, pointing out that the response team in the first hours consisted of four local pipeline maintenance employees who were inadequately trained and made a series of bad decisions.
Not only did Enbridge fail to make the EPA’s initial cleanup deadline, it also blew through a series of fallback deadlines across more than four years. Not until late 2014 did the agency finally sign off on the remediation effort, handing the remaining responsibilities to the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality.
As the cleanup winds down, though, there is little cause for celebration. “The Kalamazoo River still isn’t clean,” says Swift. “The EPA reached a point where additional cleanup might do more harm than good. Much of the river is still contaminated.”
Some local residents accuse the company of overstating its progress. “In the process of beautifying everything and giving money to everybody and making everybody feel good about it, they’re not really telling people about the dangers still there in that water,” says Linda L. Cypret-Kilbourne of Michigan’s Potawatomi tribe.
It’s not clear when the river will go back to pre-spill quality. After conventional oil spills, crews eventually back off and allow microbes to break down the last bits of crude. That approach isn’t a good option in Kalamazoo. First, the area doesn’t have a large natural population of oil-eating microbes like the Gulf of Mexico has. In addition, tar sands crude contains very high levels of heavy metals, which don’t break down easily.
Let’s not forget how much it cost to (not completely) clean the Kalamazoo. The current price tag is $1.21 billion (and rising), making it the most expensive onshore oil spill in U.S. history.
“ The Kalamazoo River still isn’t clean. The EPA reached a point where additional cleanup might do more harm than good. Much of the river is still contaminated. ”
It’s tempting to dismiss the slow, botched, expensive, and still-unfinished cleanup as growing pains. Tar sands imports have risen significantly since 2010, as has public awareness of the difference between the Canadian crude and the conventional product. In the five years since the incident, we should have improved tar sands oil spill response. But we didn’t.
If another Enbridge spill were to happen tomorrow, the company might respond more quickly, but huge volumes of heavy tar sands crude would still pour out of the pipeline. David Holtz of the Michigan chapter of the Sierra Club told reporters that a rupture in Enbridge Line 5, another pipeline that runs through Michigan, would be disastrous.
“If they hit the shutoff valve immediately after a rupture, there would still be more than 650,000 gallons of oil spilled into the Great Lakes,” he said.
Cleaning it up would be as challenging today as it was five years ago. There have been no technological breakthroughs since 2010. The tar sands industry should accept a large portion of the blame for this stasis.
“The efforts to improve spill response have been caught up in a public relations war,” says Swift. “The tar sands industry wants you to believe that oil is oil, and that its product involves no heightened concerns. As a result, spill responders are working with largely the same tools today as in 2010.”
Tar sands pipelines—like the one operated by Enbridge, or TransCanada’s proposed Keystone XL pipeline—run for thousands of miles, crisscrossing the United States and Canada in elaborate networks. They entail certain risks, and those risks are not going away. We have to decide how to respond. If we accept them, we must work to minimize the consequences by developing the appropriate safety measures and technology. Or we can reject them by eliminating tar sands from our energy infrastructure. The one thing we must not do is to pretend they don’t exist. The Kalamazoo spill is a reminder. It won’t be the last.
Firefighters letting flames burn toxic chemical after Blount County train derailment
News Sentinel staff, Jul 2, 2015 5:54 AM, updated later…
A CSX train burns on Thursday, July 2, 2015, after it derailed near Old Mount Tabor Road in Blount County overnight. (MICHAEL PATRICK/NEWS SENTINEL)
Firefighters haven’t tried to douse flames burning a derailed train car containing a toxic substance that already has sent 10 law enforcement officers to a hospital.
“I think they’re just letting it burn itself out because they don’t want to get too close to it,” Blount County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Marian O’Briant said Thursday morning.
“It’s very toxic.”
The flammable chemical is Acrylonitrile, a substance used in manufacturing plastics. The chemical is considered carcinogenic. Exposure can burn the skin, inflame the lining of the lungs and nose and cause headaches, nausea and dizziness.
O’Briant said five officers with the Sheriff’s Office and five from the Alcoa Police Department were exposed to the substance during efforts to evacuate 5,000 people from a 2-mile radius from the derailment.
“Going door to door, they just breathed in some of the fumes,” she said.
The Sheriff’s Office called in extra officers to deal with the situation, O’Briant said.
“Just about every emergency agency in Blount County is involved,” she said.
The Tennessee Emergency Management Agency also has joined the effort.
Authorities have closed a section of U.S. Highway 321 between the bypass to West Blount Drive, O’Briant said. She was unsure if a detour route had been established.
Residents who use wells from south of Robert C. Jackson Drive off US. 321 to Friendsville should not drink the water, she said.
“They recommend you don’t drink the well water until further notice,” O’Briant said. “It’s just a precaution for now.”
Officers initially established a shelter for displaced residents at the Foothills Mall, but later moved people to Heritage High School. The American Red Cross chapter is staffing the high school to help those evacuated.
“Streaming in and out it’s about 100 people,” O’Briant said of the number of people at the high school.
“There’s fewer people now than there was earlier because they’re calling friends and relatives and finding places to stay,” she said.
Dayanny Hernandez, 18, and the rest of her extended family headed to the emergency room shortly after 10 a.m.
Hernandez and her mother complained of a headache, stomach pains and sore throat hours after a train carrying poisonous liquids derailed in Blount County.
“It’s hard to explain,” Hernandez said of the feeling in her throat and stomach.
Ana Castro, a family member who is 14 weeks pregnant and lives nearby, said she too wanted to get checked out. She woke at 3 this morning when a tired-looking firefighter banged on apartment door.
Clutching her 1-year-old daughter, she stood and ate breakfast with her extended family at Heritage High School before leaving for the hospital. CSX has said they would reimburse the family for the doctor’s visit.
Sandra Kelley left her yorkie and maltipoo at home this morning when authorities knocked on her door at 1 a.m., telling her to evacuate.
“I feel so bad because I only thought we would be gone for a couple of hours,” Kelley said.
One dog is in a cage; the other in the bathroom. Neither has food or water and authorities have since said it could be 48 hours before residents are allowed back into their homes.
A Red Cross assured Kelley the dogs would be OK. But O’Briant said it’s been a common problem.
A number of people have asked about returning home to get their dogs, but authorities will not let anyone through, she said.
Authorities said the evacuation could remain in force for 24-48 hours.
The Blount Partnership said in a statement that it is working with the businesses and residents affected by the train derailment.
“We will assist all businesses and individuals affected by this accident any way we can to get them operating as soon as possible,” said Bryan Daniels, Blount Partnership president/CEO.
Displaced residents with pets are being told to take the critters to the Blount County Animal Shelter on Curry Avenue, O’Briant said. Pets are not allowed at the high school shelter.
— Don Jacobs and Megan Boehnke
—
UPDATE: Pellissippi campus used as command center
It’s highly unlikely that anyone was on campus in the hours after a train derailed and displaced residents near the Blount County campus of Pellissippi State Community College.
Anthony Wise, the community college’s president, closed the campus about 6 this morning, and emergency workers are using the campus as a command center, said Julia Wood, a Pellissippi spokeswoman.
Wood said it was highly unlikely anyone was on campus before 6 a.m. since it was so early and the roads to the campus would have been blocked by emergency workers.
There are 145 students registered for summer classes on the Blount County campus, and there are 20 faculty and staff who work there as well.
But Wood said only those with classes today would have been on campus.
The campus was already scheduled to be closed Friday for Independence Day.
— MJ Slaby
UPDATE: Federal investigators on the scene
A statement from the Federal Railroad Administration said the agency had investigators and hazmat inspectors at the scene of a train derailment in Blount County.
“Once it is safe, FRA will begin a thorough investigation to determine the cause of the derailment,” the statement said.
— The Associated Press
—
UPDATE: Emergency workers decontaminated
Authorities have decontaminated 10 emergency workers exposed Thursday to a toxic substance released during a train derailment and the resulting fire, and another dozen first responders are expected to undergo the cleansing operation.
Blount Memorial Hospital spokesman Josh West said three of the first responders had been decontaminated by 4:15 a.m. in a special tent set up behind the hospital. The other seven first responders had been cleansed as of 7 a.m.
“We expect 12 more at this time, but they haven’t come through yet,” West said.
He identified the toxic substance as acrylonitrile, a colorless liquid used in the manufacture of plastics. Exposure can burn the skin, cause nausea, headaches and dizziness, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. At least one death has been recorded from inhalation of the substance.
West said after being scrubbed down, the workers underwent oxygen breathing treatments to “sort of flush the lungs to make sure there’s no problem.” West was unsure for which agencies the first responders worked. None of the treated workers have been released from the hospital. West was unsure how long the workers will be kept at the facility.
“That’s kind of fluid,” he said. “We’re holding them for observation.”
West said no residents were treated for exposure to the substance. The hospital was assisting two residents who were evacuated so quickly they were unable to get all their medical supplies and medications together.
— Don Jacobs
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UPDATE: Statement from CSX
CSX is working with first responders and relief agencies in Maryville following the derailment of a tank car that is on fire. CSX personnel are on hand at an Outreach Center that has been established at Heritage High School. Displaced residents are being offered assistance, including lodging.
Around midnight, a train en route from Cincinnati, Ohio, to Waycross, Ga., derailed the single tank car loaded with acrylonitrile, a hazardous material used in a variety of industrial processes including the manufacture of plastics. The substance is flammable and presents an inhalation risk. First responders have ordered an evacuation of residences and businesses in a two-mile radius.
The train consists of two locomotives and 57 cars, including 45 loaded cars and 12 empty cars. Cars of acrylonitrile are located on either side of the burning rail car. No crude oil is among the rail cars. A total of 27 cars in the train are carrying hazardous materials.
—
UPDATE: Second Harvest food deliveries delayed
Second Harvest Food Bank of East Tennessee will not be able to make deliveries Thursday due to the derailment.
The food bank’s 80,000-square-foot warehouse off Middlesettlements Road is in the evacuation area, according to executive director Elaine Streno.
Closings due to train derailment
Pellissippi State’s Blount County campus
Second Harvest Food Bank warehouse (no food delivery of pickups today)
Denso Manufacturing plant
The food bank’s six programs provide 1.1 million meals a month in an 18-county area.
It will resume deliveries when the area is no longer sealed off.
— News Sentinel staff
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ORIGINAL REPORT: Train derailment forces 5,000 from their homes
A CSX train carrying a “highly flammable and toxic” gas derailed in Blount County on Wednesday night, forcing the evacuation of 5,000 people from their homes.
The derailment was reported about 11:50 p.m. Wednesday at the crossing at Old Mount Tabor Road, according to an emergency dispatcher. Flames erupted from the scene.
The Blount County Fire Department and the Maryville Fire Department responded.
Authorities have not released details about the number of train cars involved in the crash or the specific substances involved.
Officers with the Blount County Sheriff’s Office have been evacuating a two-mile radius around the derailment. Displaced residents without another place to go were initially housed at the Foothills Mall. Later the American Red Cross established a shelter at Heritage High School. All those in need of a place to stay are being directed to the high school, authorities said.
The Blount County Sheriff’s Office posted on its Facebook page Thursday morning that the evacuation could last 24 to 48 hours.
Authorities have established a command center at Pellissippi State Community College off U.S. Highway 321.
More details as they develop online and in Friday’s News Sentinel.
