Repost from CBS5 KPIX San Francisco
Opposition Grows Over Plan To Bring Crude Oil Into Bay Area By Rail
Expect more pushback this week against a plan to roll highly-flammable fracked oil by rail into the Bay Area. Anne Makovec reports
Category Archives: Lac-Mégantic
Chem Engineers’ review of TSB analysis of crude oil samples from Lac-Mégantic
Repost from The Chemical Engineer… news and jobs from the chemical, biochemical and process engineering sectors
Oil in deadly train blast explosive as fuel
Canadian authorities test Lac Megantic oil
Richard Jansen 07/03/2014
The oil was found to have a flash point similar to unleaded gasoline
THE oil shipment involved in last year’s deadly Lac Megantic disaster has characteristics closer to gasoline than normal crude, according to a report by Canadian authorities.
Almost 50 people were killed when a train carrying crude produced from the US’ Bakken shale play exploded into a fireball after derailing in the Canadian town of Lac Megantic. In the aftermath of the disaster questions were raised over how the oil reacted so violently, as the properties of regular crude should make it very unlikely to explode.
In its engineering report, the Transportation Safety Board (TSB) says that the level of hazard posed by the oil “was not accurately documented” when it had been shipped. Using samples taken from the handful of tankers that didn’t derail, the regulator found that the oil at Lac Megantic had an extremely low flash point – the temperature at which it will form a flammable mixture with air – “similar to that of unleaded gasoline.”
“The large quantities of spilled crude oil, the rapid rate of release, and the oil’s high volatility and low viscosity were likely the major contributors to the large post-derailment fireball and pool fire,” it concludes.
In the wake of Lac Megantic there have been several accidents involving oil being transported from North American shale plays. Late last year a 106-car train came off the rails near the town of Casselton in North Dakota, US, and exploded. Though none of the incidents since Lac Megantic have caused a fatality, transport regulators across the region have looked to improve their safety regulations, with the US Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration announcing plans to reinforce its testing standards for crude.
The accidents have brought fresh attention to the increasing amount of oil transported across North America by rail. As production from shale oil and oil sands continues to grow faster than the pipeline network, rail has become an increasingly important method of transportation.
According to a report by the Association of American Railroads (AAR) released last year, in 2008 just 9,500 carloads of crude oil travelled by rail. By 2012 this had grown to nearly 234,000 carloads, with “another big jump” expected for 2013.
KPIX report – Marilaine Savard visits Bay Area
Repost from KPIX5/AP
Explosion Survivor Warns Of Fracked Oil Trains; Newer Safety Regulations Delayed
March 6, 2014 7:07 PM
Christin Ayers, reporter for KPIX 5 Eyewitness News
Christin Ayers, reporter for KPIX 5 Eyewitness News
Firefighters douse blazes after a freight train loaded with oil derailed in Lac-Megantic in Canada’s Quebec province on July 6, 2013, sparking explosions that engulfed about 30 buildings in fire. At least 80 people are missing after a driverless oil tanker train derailed and exploded in the small Canadian town of Lac-Megantic, destroying dozens of buildings, a firefighter back from the scene told AFP. Photo: François Laplante-Delagrave/AFP/Getty Images
(KPIX 5/AP) — A woman who lived through one of the deadliest train derailments ever hopes her experience serves as a wake-up call about allowing highly-volatile fracked crude oil to be transported by rail – as has been proposed in the Bay Area.
Thursday in Washington, a Senate transportation panel grilled federal railroad officials over delays in drafting new safety regulations in light of recent deadly oil and commuter train accidents.
Railroads are also taking too long to implement safety improvements Congress ordered under legislation passed seven years ago, lawmakers said at the hearing.
Meanwhile, a report released Thursday by Canadian regulators said the crude from the Bakken region of North Dakota is as volatile as gasoline. The derailment of a train carrying this oil last July in Lac-Megantic, Quebec created an inferno that destroyed much of the town center.
KPIX 5 spoke to a Marlaine Savard who was just a few miles away when the train carrying 30-thousand gallons of fracked crude derailed.
“We knew for sure that people were dying,” said Savard.
47 people were killed in the disaster. The toxic mess left behind will take years to clean up. “It’s like 50 football fields that are really highly contaminated,”she said.
Last week, federal regulators issued emergency regulations that require shippers to test crude coming from the Bakken region to make sure it’s properly classified while banning certain older-model tanker cars.
But they still haven’t issued any new rules for the much more common tank cars that exploded in Quebec.
Bay Area refineries are still receiving most of their crude by ship and pipeline, but experts warn that could soon change.
“This is the refining center of the western U.S.,” said Greg Karras with the advocacy group Communities for a Better Environment. “It’s a huge amount of crude that is being proposed to be delivered here by rail now.
Karras said it all comes down to profits. The tanker cars are mostly owned or leased by oil companies, that don’t want to pay. “There are alternatives, they can afford them.
Karras said fracked Bakken crude isn’t the only threat. He said trains are now hauling tar sands oil, the dirtiest kind of crude.
“It sinks to the bottom when it gets into the water body like the bay, and this has happened in other parts of the country,” he said.
Seven months after the Lac-Megantic disaster, trains have just started to roll through Marlaine Savard’s town again. “The first thing that they rebuilt was the railroad, ok!”
There are no tankers carrying crude yet, because she says this time her town won’t allow it. ”If everybody stands up, I am sure that this is the hope.”
WesPac Energy Group has plans to rebuild an old oil storage facility in downtown Pittsburg and bring in fracked crude oil by rail, ships and pipelines.
The Pittsburg city council is set to vote on the proposal’s environmental impact report in the coming months.
TSB releases analysis of crude oil samples from train accident in Lac-Mégantic
Repost from CNW (newswire.ca)
[BenIndy Editor’s note: this news release doesn’t really tell much about the results of the testing. The first link below goes to the actual report, which is a thorough scientific analysis. I will be watching for a good review that tells the story in simple layperson’s terms.]
GATINEAU, QC, March 6, 2014 /CNW/ – The Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) today released its engineering laboratory report (LP148/2013) on the analysis of the petroleum crude oil contained in tank cars of the Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway (MMA) train that derailed on 6 July 2013 in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec.
As the TSB noted in its 11 September 2013 news release announcing the issuance of safety advisory letters to Canadian and U.S. regulators, test results indicate that the level of hazard posed by the petroleum crude oil transported in the tank cars of the occurrence train was not accurately documented.
For this report, samples were collected from the 9 tank cars at the end of the occurrence train (MMA-002). These tank cars did not derail and were pulled back to Nantes, Quebec after the accident. Samples were also taken from 2 tank cars located at Farnham, Quebec. These 2 tank cars were part of another unit train operated by MMA (MMA-874) that was transporting petroleum crude oil of the same origin as the oil carried by train MMA-002. All the samples were tested and examined. The TSB is releasing the engineering laboratory report documenting this comprehensive analysis in advance of the final investigation report.
The Lac-Mégantic train derailment remains a priority for the TSB, and a team of experts continues to be dedicated to the investigation, which is now in the report-writing phase. If at any stage during the remainder of the investigation the TSB identifies additional safety deficiencies, it will communicate directly with regulators and the industry, and inform the public.
The TSB is an independent agency that investigates marine, pipeline, railway and aviation transportation occurrences. Its sole aim is the advancement of transportation safety. It is not the function of the Board to assign fault or determine civil or criminal liability.
SOURCE Transportation Safety Board of Canada