Category Archives: Federal Regulation (U.S.)

Crude By Rail, Environmental review, Federal Regulation (U.S.), Valero Benicia Refinery, Valero Crude By Rail

Benicia Herald covers Valero environmental delay

[Editor:  The Benicia Herald’s front page story  makes no mention  of the widespread criticism of the Department of Transportation’s inadequate new safety rules.  In fact, the article devotes 23 paragraphs (!) to the DOT’s trumpeting of the strengths of the new rules.  Nevertheless, the story serves as a thorough summary of DOT claims.   I hope my editorial adds some needed balance.  – RS]

News coverage: Crude-by-rail report delayed again

By Donna Beth Weilenman, 5/22/15

Long-awaited report pushed back to end of August by federal tank car rule

Principal Planner Amy Million said Friday the city would need an additional two months to finish the environmental report on a proposed project that would allow Valero to bring crude oil by train car to its Benicia refinery.

The Recirculated Draft Environmental Impact Report (RDEIR) of the Valero Crude-By-Rail project, the latest version of a study of the environmental impacts of the proposed extension of railroad tracks into the refinery’s property, was expected to be released June 30.

However, Million said because of a May 1 ruling by the federal Department of Transportation, the new anticipated release date is Aug. 31.

She said the decision to delay the document’s release came because of the announcement of new regulations that apply to the types of tanker cars that can be used to transport crude oil by train.

“We were looking at the impact of rail travel, and we were assuming the use of the 1232s,” Million said. The new DOT rule would change that to DOT-117s, she said.

Crude oil had been carried by DOT-111 tank cars, but much of the oil now is the lighter, sweeter crude from the Bakken oil fields in North Dakota, which is considered more flammable.

Locally and nationally, public concern rose about the safety of crude-by-rail shipment after a series of accidents involving DOT-111 cars led to oil spills, explosions and, in the case of a runaway train that overturned July 2013 in Lac-Megantic, Quebec, the death of 47 people.

Stronger tank cars, designated CPC 1232, have been introduced as a safer way to package and carry the sweeter crude.

However, some derailments, spills and fires have involved those rail cars as well. About 35 residents of Heimdal, N.D., were evacuated May 6 — just five days after the new rule was announced — when six tank cars caught fire after a BNSF train loaded with Bakken crude derailed two miles away. The cars were unjacketed CPC-1232 cars.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx issued a statement May 1 that new tank cars built after Oct. 1 must meet new DOT Specification 117 design or performance criteria, and that existing tank cars must be refitted with the same key components.

In Benicia, “The delay will provide the city with the necessary time to include additional analysis of the new regulations,” Million wrote in an announcement posted on the city website.

“The RDEIR will have a 45-day comment period, beginning Aug. 31,” she wrote.

During that period, the city will conduct public hearings to accept community comments on the document. Once the comment period closes, city employees and Benicia’s consultant, ESA, will complete a final environmental impact report.

That document will provide responses to all comments, from those made to the draft environmental report as well as the recirculated environmental report, Million said.

“The Final EIR and the project will then be discussed at subsequent public hearings,” she said.

Valero Benicia Refinery submitted its application for the project early in 2013, when Charlie Knox was the city’s director of Community Development.

Construction of the rail extensions is an industrial use, and the refinery’s property is in an industrial zone, he said in March 2013, when describing the project to The Herald.

Normally Valero wouldn’t have had to apply for a use permit for such a compatible endeavor, he said. But the cost of the project was estimated that year at $30 million, exceeding the $20 million threshold that triggers the use permit process, he said, and Valero wasn’t allowed to break the project into component parts so it could be approved and built without making a presentation to the Planning Commission.

In the subsequent years, the city chose to subject the project to a full Environmental Impact Report to meet requirements of the California Environmental Quality Act.

In his May 1 announcement, Foxx said the DOT’s new rule was developed by the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration and Federal Railroad Administration, in tandem with Canadian authorities.

He said it focuses on safety improvements that are designed to prevent accidents, mitigate consequences in the event of an accident and support emergency response.

Elements of the new rule as cited by Foxx are an enhanced tank car standard; an aggressive, risk-based retrofitting schedule for the older tank cars that carry crude oil and ethanol; mandatory braking standards for certain trains to reduce potential severity of accidents; new protocols for trains carrying large volumes of flammable liquids; and new sampling and testing requirements to improve classification of transported energy products.

Among the new operation protocols are new routing requirements, speed restrictions and informing of local governmental agencies about those operations.

Lisa Raitt, Canada minister of transport, issued a similar announcement, saying the new tank car standards there would align with the United States standards.

“Safety has been our top priority at every step in the process for finalizing this rule, which is a significant improvement over the current regulations and requirements and will make transporting flammable liquids safer,” Foxx said.

“Our close collaboration with Canada on new tank car standards is recognition that the trains moving unprecedented amounts of crude by rail are not U.S. or Canadian tank cars,” he said. “They are part of a North American fleet and a shared safety challenge.”

In Raitt’s announcement, the minister said, “This stronger, safer, more robust tank car will protect communities on both sides of our shared border. Through strong collaboration, we have developed a harmonized solution for North America’s tank car fleet. I am hopeful that this kind of cooperation will be a model for future Canada-U.S. partnership on transportation issues.”

Foxx said other federal agencies also are working to improve safety in transporting flammable liquids.

The Department of Homeland Security, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Energy (DOE) as well as the Obama administration are collaborating on safety strategies, he said.

In particular, DOE has developed an initiative to research and characterize tight and conventional crude oils based on key chemical and physical properties, Foxx said, and to identify properties that could make combustion more likely or more severe during handling and transport.

He said the improved standards for new and existing flammable-liquid cars would be a 9/16-inch tank shell, 11-gauge jacket, half-inch full-height head shield, thermal protection and improved pressure relief valves and bottom outlet valves. Existing tank cars must be retrofitted with the same components.

The new rule sets a three-year deadline to replace the entire fleet of DOT-111 tank cars for Packing Group I, which covers most crude shipped by rail. All non-jacketed CPC-1232s in the same service must meet the new standards or be replaced in about five years.

Braking requirements for high-hazard flammable trains (HHFT) include having a functioning, two-way, end-of-train device or a distributed power braking system.

High-hazard flammable unit trains (HHFUT), or trains with 70 or more tank cars carrying Class 3 flammable liquids with at least one tank car with packing Group 1 materials, must have electronically controlled pneumatic (ECP) braking system by Jan. 1, 2021.

The rule requires all other HHFUTs to have ECP braking systems installed after 2023.

“This important, service-proven technology has been operated successfully for years in certain services in the United States, Australia, and elsewhere,” Foxx said.

The rule sets a 50-mph speed limit on all HHFTs in all areas. Any HHFT containing tank cars that don’t meet the required enhanced tank car standards are restricted to 40 mph in high-threat urban areas.

Railroads operating HHFTs must analyze their routes using at least 27 safety and security criteria, such as track type, class, maintenance schedule and track grades and curvatures. The railroad must select routes based on those findings, Foxx said.

In addition, the new rule is expected to assure that railroads provide state, regional, local and tribal officials with a railroad point of contact for information about routing hazardous materials through their jurisdictions.

Better sampling and testing programs for unrefined petroleum-based products must be developed, documented and employed, and products must be packaged according to those test results, according to the new rule. Information from those tests must be supplied to DOT employees upon request.

Foxx said the new rule addresses recommendations from the National Transportation Safety Board, including those for improved safety features for tank cars carrying ethanol and crude oil, an aggressive schedule to replace or retrofit existing tank cars, better thermal protection and high-capacity pressure relief valves for tank cars used to carry flammable liquids, better-planned routes for trains carrying flammable products, and stricter inspection of shippers to assure flammable liquids are properly classified and documented.

A summary of the new rule is available at www.dot.gov/mission/safety/rail-rule-summary.

Forum: Valero report not likely to withstand further scrutiny

By Roger Straw, 5/26/15

THE CITY OF BENICIA issued an announcement on May 21, delaying its release of a revised draft environmental impact report on Valero Benicia Refinery’s proposal to construct an offloading facility for delivery of crude by rail. With this delay, the city will have spent more than two and a half years processing Valero’s proposal and responding to the objections of concerned residents, experts and nearby officials.

Valero’s application for a use permit came to city staff in December 2012. In May 2013, Benicia’s Community Development director issued a Notice of Intent and a Mitigated Negative Declaration, concluding that the proposal with mitigations was so benign as to not even need environmental review.

Following an outcry and organized opposition, the city commenced a full environmental review in August 2013. The Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) was released, after several delays, in June 2014. That review received an avalanche of criticism, including expert local analysis, professional review and letters from residents and area governing bodies, as well as a highly critical letter from California Attorney General Kamala Harris.

After yet another lengthy delay, the city announced in February 2015 that, in response to the magnitude of public criticism, project consultants would revise the DEIR and release it by June 30 for recirculation and another 45-day public comment period. Now, according to the city of Benicia’s announcement last Thursday, the new two-month delay (until Aug. 31) will give consultants “time to include additional analysis of the new regulations announced on May 1, 2015 by the Department of Transportation to strengthen safe transportation of flammable liquids by rail.”

The city consultant’s analysis, seemingly favoring Valero’s proposal from the outset, will likely make the case that new federal safety standards strengthen environmental protections for this project and improve Valero’s chances for landing a use permit. This analysis, of course, will come under heavy fire because of the inadequacy of the new federal rules, and likely will not withstand the scrutiny of Benicia citizens, officials and regional authorities and stakeholders.

All along, leaders of Benicians for a Safe and Healthy Community (BSHC) have stressed that Valero’s proposal is fatally flawed as shown in a list of significant DEIR failures, including the longstanding lack of adequate federal safety regulations governing rail transport of high-hazard flammable liquids (see https://beniciaindependent.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/BSHC_Comments_on_DEIR.pdf — especially Section 2, #3, pp. 13-15).

More recently, BSHC has joined a chorus of national and international environmentalists and elected officials who are dismissive of the new rules issued by the Department of Transportation, which fail to adequately govern oil train routing, speed, braking systems and public notification, and leave entirely too many years for retirement and retrofitting of unsafe tank cars and the design and manufacture of tank cars to newer, safer standards.

BSHC and others have called for an immediate moratorium on all shipment of crude oil by rail, and a speedy transition to clean and renewable energy sources that will “leave the oil in the soil.”

Roger Straw is a Benicia resident and member of Benicians for a Safe and Healthy Community.

 

CPC-1232, Crude By Rail, DOT-111, Federal Regulation (U.S.), Pressure tank cars, Rail Safety, Tank car design, Tank car manufacture, Tank car retrofit

Tesoro & Phillips 66 building crude railcars stronger than new US rules require

Repost from Reuters
[Editor:  These tank cars exceed the new standard, but still fail on several counts.  For instance, note the closing sentences here: “Hack said Tesoro is talking with Union Tank Car on possibly outfitting crude railcars to add enhanced brakes before the 2021 deadline.  ‘We have some time to make that decision,’ he said.”  You can be sure that every refinery seeking permits for crude by rail will crow that they, too, have ordered newer, safer tank cars.  Get ready, Benicia!   – RS]

EXCLUSIVE-Tesoro building crude railcars stronger than new US rules require

By Kristin Hayes, May 18, 2015 4:59pm BST

(Reuters) – U.S. refiner Tesoro Corp has ordered new crude oil railcars with features that surpass safety standards that federal regulators set this month, executives told Reuters.

The 210 tank cars being built in northern Louisiana are so-called pressure cars, with the same design as those that carry liquid petroleum gases such as propane and butane, gas cargoes that are more flammable than crude oil.

They will be delivered in the coming months after being ordered in early 2014.

The new federal rules for all crude and ethanol railcars built after Oct. 1 of this year do not require strength to the level of a pressure car but are stronger than the standards adopted by the industry in 2011.

Tesoro, like other oil-by-rail players, knew the federal standards were coming and the basics of what they would likely be. But the company went further with a stronger car, “which is the primary thing we control,” C.J. Warner, Tesoro’s head of strategy and business development, told Reuters.

The order was a sign the refiner wanted to get ahead of the coming regulations and avoid potential capacity bottlenecks at companies that build tank cars as shippers must now renovate their fleets.

Booming North American onshore production spurred sharp growth in moving oil by rail, particularly for U.S. West and East coast refiners which otherwise must depend on more costly imports. No major crude pipelines move oil from the Midcontinent west across the Rocky Mountains or east through the Appalachians and densely populated northeastern states.

Fiery derailments, caused in some cases by track failures, have become more frequent as oil-by-rail and crude-only trains carrying 100 cars or more went from nearly nothing five years ago to more than 1 million barrels per day late last year.

Opposition to moving oil by rail spiked on safety concerns, prompting the U.S. Department of Transportation and Canada to impose new railcar safety standards.

Tesoro isn’t the only refiner that didn’t wait for word from the U.S. DOT to order stronger cars.

Phillips 66 confirmed to Reuters that it also last year ordered 350 non-pressurized new cars that mostly match the new DOT standard. Those cars will be delivered by year-end, the company said.

THICKER HULLS

Both sets of new cars have 9/16-inch-thick hulls, steel shields on the front and back and protections for valves and fittings where crude goes in on top and drains out the bottom, as the new rules require, company executives said. Tesoro’s design modifies those fittings to handle crude rather than just LPGs.

Tesoro’s cars also have test pressure specifications of 200 pounds per square inch of internal pressure, twice that for non-pressurized cars. A test pressure is typically 20 to 40 percent of how much pressure it would take for the railcar to burst.

That level of test pressure is standard for cars that transport LPGs or highly poisonous substances such as hydrogen cyanide, according to the Association of American Railroads.

“When we saw the design, we were very comfortable that it would meet the new standards that we anticipated,” John Hack, Tesoro’s head of rail operations, told Reuters.

For Tesoro, which hopes to build the largest oil-by-rail facility in the United States in Washington state, it’s an investment in safety and continued access to cheaper North American crudes.

“It’s very important to us to continue to transport North American crude and get it from the Midcontinent out to the West Coast where it competes very nicely with the foreign crudes,” Warner said.

RETROFITS?

By last year most refiners, including Tesoro and Phillips 66, no longer accepted shipments in older, weaker railcars such as those used on a runaway crude train that careened into the small Quebec town of Lac Megantic in mid-2013, killing 47 people.

Early last year Tesoro needed to replace the last of its older cars and worked with its builder, Berkshire Hathaway Inc’s Union Tank Car, to develop the new design, Warner said.

Tesoro and Phillips 66 aim to use their newest cars in crude trains before deciding whether to order more. Both companies’ fleets meet the 2011 industry standard for cars with 7/16-inch-thick hulls and reinforced valves.

Those 7/16-inch cars don’t have to be thrown out, but to move in crude-only trains, they will need added protections, including ‘jackets’, or an extra layer of steel around the tank, according to the DOT rules.

Neither Tesoro’s nor Phillips 66’s new cars are equipped with specialized brakes that the DOT said crude-only trains must have starting in 2021 or be held to 30 miles per hour. An oil industry trade group is challenging that provision in court.

Hack said Tesoro is talking with Union Tank Car on possibly outfitting crude railcars to add enhanced brakes before the 2021 deadline.

“We have some time to make that decision,” he said.

(Reporting by Kristen Hays; Editing by Terry Wade and James Dalgleish)
City of Benicia, Crude By Rail, DEIR, Environmental review, Federal Regulation (U.S.), Valero Benicia Refinery, Valero Crude By Rail

Valero Benicia environmental report delayed again – not likely to withstand further scrutiny

By Roger Straw, Editor, The Benicia Independent

Valero Benicia Crude By Rail environmental report delayed for review of new federal regulations

Valero_Crude_by_Rail-Project_Description_March_2013_(cover_page)The City of Benicia issued an announcement on May 21, 2015 delaying its release of a revised draft environmental impact report on Valero Benicia Refinery’s proposal to construct an offloading facility for delivery of crude by rail.

With this delay, The City will now have spent more than two and a half years processing Valero’s proposal and responding to the objections of concerned residents, experts and nearby officials.

Valero’s application for a use permit came to City staff in December, 2012.  In May of 2013, Benicia’s Community Development Director issued a Notice of Intent and a Mitigated Negative Declaration, concluding that the proposal with mitigations was so benign as to not even need environmental review.

Following outcries and organized opposition, the City commenced a full environmental review in August, 2013.  The Draft EIR was released after several delays in June, 2014.   That review received an avalanche of critiques, including expert local analyses, professional review and letters from residents and area governing bodies and a highly critical letter from the California Attorney General.

After yet another lengthy delay, the City announced in February 2015 that, in response to the magnitude of public criticisms, project consultants would revise the DEIR and release it by June 30, 2015 for recirculation and another 45-day public comment period.

According to the City of Benicia’s Thursday announcement, the new 2-month delay (until August 31, 2015) will give consultants “time to include additional analysis of the new regulations announced on May 1, 2015 by the Department of Transportation to strengthen safe transportation of flammable liquids by rail.”

The City consultant’s analysis, seemingly favoring Valero’s proposal from the outset, will likely make the case that new federal safety standards strengthen environmental protections for this project and improve Valero’s chances for landing a use permit.  This analysis, of course, will come under heavy fire due to the inadequacy of the new federal rules, and likely will not withstand the scrutiny of Benicia citizens, officials and regional authorities and stakeholders.

All along, leaders of Benicians For a Safe and Healthy Community (BSHC) have stressed that Valero’s proposal is fatally flawed as shown in a list of significant DEIR failures, including the longstanding lack of adequate federal safety regulations governing rail transport of high hazard flammable liquids (see especially Section 2, #3, pp. 13-15).

More recently, BSHC has joined a chorus of national and international environmentalists and elected officials who are dismissive of the new (May 1) rules issued by the Department of Transportation.  (See NYTimes article.)  The new rules fail to adequately govern oil train routing, speed, braking systems and public notification, and leave entirely too many years for retirement and retrofitting of unsafe tank cars and the design and manufacture of tank cars to newer, safer standards.

BSHC and others have called for an immediate moratorium on all shipment of crude oil by rail, and a speedy transition to clean and renewable energy sources that will “leave the oil in the soil.”

The City’s announcement:

“The anticipated release of the Recirculated Draft Environmental Impact Report (RDEIR) on the Valero Crude by Rail project has been postponed to August 31, 2015.  The delay will provide the City with the necessary time to include additional analysis of the new regulations announced on May 1, 2015 by the Department of Transportation to strengthen safe transportation of flammable liquids by rail. The RDEIR will have a 45-day comment period, beginning August 31, 2015, which will include public hearings where the community may comment on the RDEIR. After the comment period closes, the City will complete the Final EIR which will include responses to all comments on the original Draft EIR and the RDEIR. The Final EIR and the project will then be discussed at subsequent public hearings.”

Bakken Crude, Cleanup funding, Crude By Rail, Derailment, Environmental Impacts, Explosion, Federal Regulation (U.S.), Fire, Hazmat notification, High threat urban areas, Oil spill, Public Health, Rail Safety, Tank car retirement, Tank car retrofit, Tar sands crude, Train speed, Water contamination

Riverkeeper sues U.S. DOT over oil train safety rules

Repost from The Times Union, State College, PA
[Editor: Note that this is a new filing, closely following the filing of May 14 by a coalition of environmental groups.  – RS]

Riverkeeper sues U.S. DOT over oil train safety rules

By Brian Nearing, May 18, 2015

The Hudson River environmental advocacy group Riverkeeper is challenging new U.S. Department of Transportation crude-by-rail standards in federal court, saying that they fail to protect the public and the environment from proven threats, according to a statement issued Monday.

The release states: Riverkeeper filed its lawsuit in the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in New York City on May 15, a little more than a week after the DOT issued a final tank car and railroad operation rule which had been the subject of scrutiny and controversy since its proposal in 2014. The suit closely follows another filed in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals by a coalition of conservation and citizen groups that includes Earthjustice, Waterkeeper Alliance, ForestEthics and the Sierra Club.

The Hudson River and the Greater New York/New Jersey region, a thoroughfare for up to 25 percent of all crude shipments originating in the Bakken shale oil region, faces a daily risk of spills and explosions that could devastate communities, local economies, drinking water security, and the environment.

“These seriously flawed standards all but guarantee that there will be more explosive derailments, leaving people and the environment at grave risk,” Riverkeeper President Paul Gallay said. “The shortcomings are numerous, including an inadequate speed limit, unprotective tank car design, and time line that would allow these dangerous tank cars 10 more years on the rails. The DOT completely fails to recognize that we’re in the middle of a crisis – we don’t need bureaucratic half measures that are years away from implementation, we need common-sense protections today.”

Just this month, tank cars laden with crude oil derailed and exploded in Heimdal, North Dakota. Under the new DOT standards, the same type of cars that exploded in that disaster could stay in service hauling volatile crude oil for another five to eight years, or even indefinitely if they are used for tar sands.

Over the past several years, a series of fiery derailments, toxic spills, and explosions involving volatile crude and ethanol rail transport has caused billions in damages across North America. Crude-by-rail accidents threaten irreversible damage to waterways, many of which, like the Hudson River, serve as the source of drinking water for tens of thousands of people. This year alone,six oil-by-rail shipments have caught fire and exploded in North America. In July 2013, a derailment in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, killed 47 people. The total liabilities for that rail disaster could easily reach $2.7 billion over the next decade.

Here are some of the ways the new safety standards fail to protect people and the environment:

• Hazardous cars carrying volatile crude oil can remain in service for up to 10 years.

• The rule rolls back public notification requirements, leaving communities and first responders in the dark about explosive crude oil tank cars rumbling through their towns.

• While new tank cars will require thicker shells to mitigate punctures and leaks, retrofit tank cars will be allowed to stay in use with a less protective design standard.

• Speed limits have been restricted only for “high threat urban areas,” but only two areas in New York have received that designation, Buffalo and New York City.

• The “high threat” category relates to cities seen as vulnerable to terrorist attacks by the Department of Homeland Security. It is unrelated to actual risks posed by crude-by-rail.