Category Archives: Risk Assessment

Bay Area Refineries, California Regulation, Environmental Impacts, Ethanol, Risk Assessment, Spill prevention and response

SF Chron: flood of oil tank cars “potential environmental disasters on wheels”

Repost from The San Francisco Chronicle, SFGate.com

Lots of oil in rail tank cars about to be coming to Bay Area

Phillip Matier And Andrew Ross
Sunday, March 23, 2014

FILE - In this Aug. 8, 2012 file photo, DOT-111 and AAR-211 class rail tankers pass by on the background as a man works at the Union Pacific rail yard in Council Bluffs, Iowa. DOT-111 rail cars being used to ship crude oil from North Dakota's Bakken region are an "unacceptable public risk," and even cars voluntarily upgraded by the industry may not be sufficient, a member of the National Transportation Safety Board said Wednesday, Feb. 16, 2014. The cars were involved in derailments of oil trains in Casselton, N.D., and Lac-Megantic, Quebec, just across the U.S. border, NTSB member Robert Sumwalt said at a House Transportation subcommittee hearing. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik, File) Photo: Nati Harnik, Associated Press

FILE – In this Aug. 8, 2012 file photo, DOT-111 and AAR-211 class rail tankers pass by on the background as a man works at the Union Pacific rail yard in Council Bluffs, Iowa.  DOT-111 rail cars being used to ship crude oil from North Dakota’s Bakken region are an “unacceptable public risk,” and even cars voluntarily upgraded by the industry may not be sufficient, a member of the National Transportation Safety Board said Wednesday, Feb. 16, 2014.  The cars were involved in derailments of oil trains in Casselton, N.D., and Lac-Megantic, Quebec, just across the U.S. border, NTSB member Robert Sumwalt said at a House Transportation subcommittee hearing.  (AP Photo/Nati Harnik, File)  Photo: Nati Harnik, Associated Press.

Oil is flooding into the Bay Area – in rail tank cars that amount to potential environmental disasters on wheels.

In 2011, about 9,000 tank cars filled with crude oil were shipped into California by rail. In the next two years, thanks to the oil boom in North Dakota and Canada, the number is expected to jump to more than 200,000, according to the California Energy Commission.

About 10 percent of the oil will be headed to the five Bay Area refineries, which means traveling through Contra Costa and Solano counties. The question is, are we prepared to handle the spills or fires if there is a derailment?

“No,” said state Sen. Jerry Hill, D-San Mateo, after listening to 2 1/2 hours of testimony from emergency responders the other day at a hearing in Sacramento.

In a nutshell, the state has plenty of money for responding to waterborne accidents like the Cosco Busan oil spill in the bay in 2007 – but virtually nothing for handling spills on land.

“It’s not that crude oil is any more dangerous than ethanol or other products that we currently see on the rails,” said Chief Jeff Carman of the Contra Costa County Fire Protection District. “It’s just that with the sheer volume that will be coming in, we are going to see more accidents.”

First on the scene of any accident is likely to be the local fire department – but in Contra Costa and Solano, some agencies have closed fire stations in recent years or reduced the number of personnel per shift to deal with budget cuts.

Contra Costa Fire, for example, is down to 75 on-duty firefighters a day to cover 400 square miles and 600,000 people, compared with the 90 firefighters a day just two years ago.

To give an idea of the potential scale of an accident, the amount of oil that spilled from the Cosco Busan equals about 1 1/2 tank cars of crude. A full train could carry 60 times that amount.

“There is a potential for very serious problems and very disastrous problems,” Hill said.

San Francisco Chronicle columnists Phillip Matier and Andrew Ross appear Sundays, Mondays and Wednesdays. Matier can be seen on the KPIX TV morning and evening news. He can also be heard on KCBS radio Monday through Friday at 7:50 a.m. and 5:50 p.m. Got a tip? Call (415) 777-8815, or e-mail matierandross@sfchronicle.com.
Bakken Shale, California Regulation, Rail Safety, Risk Assessment, Roseville California

Roseville Firefighter: increased risk. Senator Wolk: no unified response

Repost from KCRA Sacramento

State lawmakers worried about oil trains

More crude arriving by rail from fracking fields

Mar 20, 2014

KCRA report 2014-03-20

ROSEVILLE, Calif. (KCRA) —California lawmakers have expressed concern about a growing influx of freight trains loaded with oil and the state’s ability to handle a major rail disaster.

“Right now we’re seeing approximately 30 to 40 (cars) a day,” said Peter Hnat, of the Roseville Fire Department.

Hnat said the tanker cars are passing through Roseville’s busy Union Pacific railyard on their way from North Dakota to oil refineries in the Bay Area.

He said railroad companies have told the city that the number of cars is eventually expected to reach 120 a day.

“The increased volume coming through town obviously increases the risk,” Hnat said.

Hnat said the risk also comes from the fact that these tankers are not carrying typical crude, but rather oil produced from the drilling process known as fracking.

Fracking, also known as hydraulic fracturing, is the fracturing of rock by a pressurized liquid to extract oil and natural gas.

Hnat said the oil produced by fracking is more volatile than typical crude.

Last summer, a train loaded with fracked oil derailed and exploded in Lac-Mégantic, Québec, and killed 47 people.

A similar accident happened last December in Casselton, N.D.

Kim Zagaris, fire chief for the state emergency management department, said he is most concerned about specific rural areas where derailments have been more frequent.

Zagaris pointed to a map that included such areas near the foothills town of Colfax, east of Chico and through a stretch of Plumas County.

He said these areas were also more likely to be hours away from specially trained hazardous materials crews.

“We have gaps in our system,” Zagaris said. “And like I said, the more rural the area, the longer the response will take.”

Zagaris said Gov. Jerry Brown’s budget proposal includes a plan to charge a tax on oil transported by rail, similar to a tax that already applies to maritime shipments.

He said the money would be dedicated to purchasing equipment and providing training for vulnerable areas.

According to the California Energy Commission, the amount of oil imported to the state by rail increased from more than 155,000 barrels in January 2013 to nearly 1.2 million barrels in December 2013 — a more than sevenfold increase.

State lawmakers held a hearing Thursday to discuss the issue of oil train safety.

“I’m not at all convinced that there’s a unified response by the state to this new challenge,” said Sen. Lois Wolk, D-Davis.

Oil Industry, Rail industry, Reinsurance, Risk Assessment

Catastrophic risks too great for insurance?

Repost from DeSmog blog

A Record Year of Oil Train Accidents Leaves Insurers Wary (via Desmogblog)

Tue, 2014-03-18 06:00Sharon Kelly Spurred by the shale drilling rush that has progressed at breakneck speed, the railroad industry has moved fast to help drillers transport petroleum and its byproducts to consumers. Last year, trains hauled over 400…