Category Archives: Schools

Blast zone, Crude By Rail, Derailment, Emergency Readiness & Response, Evacuation, Explosion, Fire, Schools, Train speed

Oil trains and schools don’t mix

Repost from The Democrat and Chronicle, Rochester, NY
[Editor: See also Danger 101: Oil trains pass near Rockland schools and Groups say oil tanker cars on trains put Mid-Hudson communities, schools, infrastructure at risk.  – RS]

Oil and schools don’t mix, enviro groups say

Steve Orr, November 20, 2014
Oil train Pittsford
A train of crude-oil tank cars passing through the village of Pittsford | (Photo: Steve Orr, Democrat and Chronicle)

About 350 New York state schools, including at least 63 in Monroe County, lie within a mile of railroad tracks used by trains carrying volatile crude oil, a coalition of environmental and other advocacy groups said Thursday.

The groups urged state and federal official to bolster emergency planning at those educational facilities and to require crude-oil trains to travel more slowly near schools.

“We are deeply concerned about the growing number of crude oil rail cars passing through the Hudson Valley and across New York State every day,” said Claire Barnett, executive director of the Albany-based Health Schools Network. “A catastrophic event, should it happen near an occupied school, could devastate a community for a generation or more.”

The good news locally is that districts in Monroe County near CSX Transportation’s two freight-rail corridors say they have emergency plans in place and are prepared to shelter or evacuate in the event that became necessary.

“I’m impressed with what our county schools are doing – on paper. I really am. It sounds fantastic,” said Judy Braiman of Empire State Consumer Project, one of several groups that helped with the report released Thursday.

School officials told Braiman they had fully developed emergency-evacuation plans, and staff in the affected schools were tutored in those plans. Braiman said, though, she could not be sure if that was true of every school. “My only question is, did it get down to the level of the teachers, the parents and the children?” she said.

Rail shipment of crude oil has become a hot-button topic around the country since a surge in shipments from shale-oil fields in the northern Plains. CSX has said 20 to 35 oil trains traverse upstate New York each week, headed for Albany and from there to East Coast refineries.

The shipments raise concern because this particular crude oil is highly volatile. Several oil trains have derailed and caught fire; most tragically, a train rolled downhill out of control and derailed in Lac-Megantic in July 2013, exploding into a huge conflagration that killed 47 people and destroyed several blocks of the small Canadian city’s downtown.

Federal officials say locations within a half-mile of a derailment site should be prepared to evacuate in event of a serious accident, and everyone within a mile could be in danger.

Twenty-six of the 63 Monroe County schools noted by the environment groups are within a half-mile of the tracks, according to data the groups released. Included were schools in the Churchville-Chili, Gates-Chili, Rochester, Penfield, Pittsford, East Rochester and Fairport districts. Several religious-affiliated and charter schools were included as well.

All 63 Monroe schools noted by the groups are near the CSX mainline tracks that run through the city of Rochester and adjoining suburbs. As the Democrat and Chronicle has reported, however, there is evidence that CSX prefers to route oil trains on a separate track that runs through Monroe County’s southern suburbs.

At least four schools located near those tracks are omitted from group’s list and maps, though Braiman said she did contact districts in which those schools are located.

Bakken Crude, Rail routing, Schools

Potentially explosive trains rolling past 55 schools along a 60 mile stretch in NY and NJ

Repost from WABC TV7 Eyewitness News, New York, NY
[Editor: Trains actually pass right UNDER one school.  A shocking video and excellent investigative reporting.  Someone really should research and list the schools (and other vital structures) along the Union Pacific tracks proposed as the route for Valero Benicia crude-by-rail.
UPDATE, Nov. 1, 2014 – Note previous NRDC study on this issue in California, especially p. 3 of It Could Happen Here, The Exploding Threat of Crude by Rail in California, which lists the number of schools.  More detailed mapping is available on the NRDC’s Risk Zone Maps.  – RS] 

The Investigators: Potentially explosive trains rolling through New York, New Jersey neighborhoods

By Jim Hoffer, October 31, 2014

NEW YORK (WABC) — They are mile-long trains filled with explosive crude oil that the government says are unsafe, yet more and more of them are rolling through neighborhoods in New York and New Jersey.

In an exclusive investigation in which the Eyewitness News Investigators tracked the movements of these trains, we’ve determined that several times a day, they pass right by dozens of schools filled with students.

In some towns, they are called bomb trains: tanker cars filled with millions of gallons of crude oil.

“If you live in community near rail lines, I guarantee you, you know about bomb trains,” said Paul Gallay, president of the environmental group RiverKeeper.

Ten months ago in North Dakota, a fireball from a crude oil train derailment forced the town of 1,400 to evacuate. Then, last April, there were more evacuations in Lynchburg, Virginia, after a CSX oil train derailed there.

Last year, a derailment in a small Canadian town killed 47 people, the devastation made worse because the old rail cars are prone to rupture in a crash.

Just months ago, the federal government told rail shippers they have two years to phase out these older tankers. RiverKeeper thinks the ban should be immediate.

“You have to have better rail cars, and soon,” Gallay said. “And until you do, you shouldn’t be putting communities at risk.”

In the last two years, there’s been a 400 percent increase in crude oil trains rolling down along the Hudson River and into New Jersey. Our investigation has found that along a 60-mile stretch of the rail line from Newburgh to Newark, there are at least 55 schools located within 1,500 feet of the tracks.

Schools_Bomb-Trains_NY-NJ_WABC-New-York_550Every day, three to four trains filled with millions of gallons of crude from the mid-west roll by these schools.

“It’s totally unacceptable,” mom Sarah McTasney said.

McTasney, of West Nyack, worries that for at least the next two years, these tanker cars that the government says are defective will continue rolling by near her daughter’s school.

“It’s putting our communities at risk,” she said. “And when talking about schools, you’re talking about high concentrations of children.”

A spokesman for CSX Railroad says they’ve put in place numerous safety measures, including increased track inspections, lowering the speeds of some of their trains and installing monitors to detect track defects. The spokesman adds that CSX does not own the railcars but are responsible for moving them safely. And as for safety, our investigation found one school along the CSX rail line that stood out more than the rest.

At West Point Military Academy, long lines of tanker cars filled with highly flammable crude go right under the campus through a tunnel below one of the academy’s main buildings.

“We have evidence from al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups specifically looking at rail targets,” rail security expert Fred Millar said.

CSX says it has worked closely with first-responders in both New York and New Jersey and has advocated for higher design standards for cars.

Here is the list of all the schools located within 1,500 feet of CSX rail line from Newburgh to Newark.

NEW JERSEY
Hawkins Street Elementary- Newark, NJ – 1300 ft
Ethical Community Charter School- Jersey City- 600 ft
Elementary School 2 – Jersey City – 1500 ft
St. Anne’s School – Jersey City – 1500 ft
North Bergen Vocational School – North Bergen, NJ – 500 ft
McKinley School – North Bergen, NJ – 800 ft
St. Brigid’s School – North Bergen, NJ – 1100 ft
Franklin Elementary School – North Bergen, NJ -1100 ft
Robert Fulton School – North Bergen, NJ – 1100 ft
Franklin Elementary School #3 – North Bergen, NJ – 1500 ft
High Tech High School – North Bergen, NJ – 1000 ft
Grant Elementary – Ridgefield Park,NJ – 1400 ft
Han Al High School – Ridgefield Park, NJ – 1400 ft
Lincoln Elementary – Ridgefield Park, NJ – 1300 ft
E Roy Rixby Elementary – Bogota, NJ – 1400 ft
Trinity Lutheran School – Bogota, NJ – 1000 ft
St. Joseph School – Bogota, NJ – 1300 ft
Bogart Memorial School – Bogota, NJ – 400 ft
Bogota Jr. Sr. High – Bogota, NJ – 1200 ft
Teaneck Community Charter School – Teaneck, NJ – 130 ft
Teaneck High School – Teaneck, NJ – 1200 ft
Benjamin Franklin M.S. – Teaneck, NJ – 1200 ft
Yeshiva Gedolah – Teaneck, NJ – 100 ft
Torah Academy – Teaneck, NJ – 250 ft
Ma’ayanot Yeshiva H.S. – Teaneck, NJ – 150 ft
Roy W. Brown M.S. – Bergenfield, NJ – 300 ft
Yeshivat He’Atid – Bergenfield, NJ – 600 ft
Franklin Elementary School – Bergenfield, NJ – 1300 ft
Transfiguration Academy – Bergenfield, NJ – 800 ft
Dumont High School – Dumont, NJ – 500 ft
Newbury Academy – Dumont, NJ – 900 ft
Bergen Center for Child Development – Haworth, NJ – 900 ft
Haworth Public School – Haworth, NJ – 900 ft
Harrington Park Public School – Harrington Park, NJ- 1400 ft
The Goddard School – Norwood, NJ – 100 ft
Thomas Jefferson Elementary – Northvale, NJ – 300 ft

NEW YORK
Dominican College – Orangeburg, NY – 200 ft
Tappan high School – Orangeburg, NY – 1100 ft
St. Dominic’s School – Blauvelt, NY – 1100 ft
St. Catherine’s School – Orangeburg, NY – 1000 ft
Cottage Lane Elementary – Blauvelt, NY – 1300 ft
St. Paul’s School – Valley Cottage, NY – 200 ft
Congers Elementary School – Congers, NY – 200 ft
Haverstraw M.S. – Haverstraw, NY – 1300 ft
Gerald F. Neary Elementary – Haverstraw, NY – 1000 ft
North Rockland Control School District – West Haverstraw, NY – 1300 ft
West Haverstraw Elementary – West Haverstraw, NY – 800 ft
West Point Military Academy – Highland Falls, NY – 0 ft
Cornwall on Hudson Elementary – Cornwall-on-Hudson, NY – 1300 ft
Cornwall Central School District – Cornwall-on-Hudson, NY – 1200 ft
Liberty Street School – Newburgh, NY – 1200 ft
St. Patrick’s – Newburgh, NY – 900 ft
Grand Street Public School – Newburgh, NY – 1000 ft
Newburgh Jabemacle Elementary School – Newburgh, NY – 1200 ft
Mount St. Mary College – Newburgh, NY – 1500 ft.