SCHUMER REVEALS: LOCAL FIRST RESPONDERS ARE NOT GETTING POTENTIALLY LIFE-SAVING INFORMATION ABOUT HAZARDOUS, HIGHLY FLAMMABLE MATERIALS TRAVELING ACROSS UPSTATE NY RAILS IN INCREASING NUMBERS – PUSHES FEDS TO REQUIRE RAIL COMPANIES TO PROVIDE REAL-TIME INFORMATION SO COMMUNITIES ARE BETTER PREPARED TO RESPOND TO A DERAILMENT
Highly Flammable Substances Are Barreling Through Buffalo, Syracuse, Rochester, Albany, Hudson Valley & Other Areas of Upstate NY Multiple Times Per Day In Train Cars Prone To Rupture if they Derail – But First Responders Are Not Being Told What The Substances Are Or When They Are Coming
In Recent Crude Oil Train Car Explosion in Lac-Megantic That Took 47 Lives, Responders Did Not Have Information about the Materials Being Transported, Making It Difficult To Fight the Fire
Schumer: First Responders Should Not Be Left in the Dark about Hazardous Materials Traveling Through Their Community
This week, U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer, on a conference call with reporters, urged the federal Department of Transportation (DOT) to issue a rule that rail companies must share with essential local first responders and emergency personnel potentially life-saving information about the contents of hazardous materials traveling in their rail cars. Schumer explained that even though the transport of highly volatile crude oil through Upstate New York has skyrocketed, there is currently no requirement for the rail companies that transport this crude oil or ethanol to notify local first responders about the timing or contents of the train cars. Schumer, therefore, is pushing the federal DOT to issue a rule that would require rail companies to report the contents and schedule of their train cars when carrying hazardous material – a requirement that is recommended by the National Transportation Safety Board.
“As hazardous materials travel over our railways with increasing frequency, our local first responders and emergency personnel must be in-the-know about the content and schedule of these rail cars; but disturbingly, they do not receive information from rail companies about what’s traveling the rails. This is an absurd and dangerous gap in knowledge that should be quickly corrected,” said Schumer. “So I’m urging the federal Department of Transportation to issue a rule and establish a permanent program requiring rail companies to notify localities about their shipments in real-time. It’s a simple step that would give first responders the tools to better handle an emergency, and save lives and property. For communities throughout Upstate New York where these cars rumble through on a daily basis, this is a common sense policy that would make rail transport safer.”
Schumer said that it is both absurd and dangerous that local first responders, fire departments and other emergency personnel don’t know the contents of the hazardous materials transported through their communities by rail on a real-time basis. In the event of a derailment or fire, first responders need to know what chemical caused the fire in order to assess how best to contain and fight it. First responders rely on timely hazard information to determine appropriate isolation distances, decide whether evacuation or shelter-in-place is appropriate, determine appropriate health and safety protocols for responders and rescuers, and decide appropriate firefighting tactics. The Lac-Megantic explosion, and a subsequent derailment in New Brunswick, revealed that first responders do not have access in real-time to the information they need. Following the November 30, 2012, derailment of a Conrail freight train with release of vinyl chloride in Paulsboro, New Jersey, the NTSB convened an investigative hearing during which emergency responders testified at the hearing that their response actions were hindered by the lack of timely and accurate train consist information.
Schumer, who has long been a proponent of stricter safety standards for crude oil transported by rail, is now pushing for a federal requirement to share information about hazardous rail cargo to relevant parties through a secure program. Specifically, Schumer is urging the federal DOT, through the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), to complete a recommendation proposed by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), which recommends that the federal DOT, “with the assistance of the Federal Railroad Administration, require that railroads immediately provide to emergency responders accurate, real-time information regarding the identity and location of all hazardous materials on a train.” The NTSB, to this day, continues to investigate accidents where emergency responders did not have timely and accurate hazard information from railroad operators before an accident. This causes great concern that first responders such as firefighters may in many cases not have sufficient information to make critical real time decisions in the event of a significant derailment like those in Lac Megantic or Casselton, North Dakota. First responders rely on timely hazard communications include determining appropriate isolation distances, deciding whether evacuation or shelter-in-place is appropriate, determining appropriate health and safety protocols for responders and rescuers, and deciding appropriate firefighting tactics.
Emergency personnel and County Executives from across Upstate New York have requested information from train companies transporting crude oil and other hazardous materials, but they have not been able to get information about when these materials are traveling through their communities and exactly what materials are loaded on to these trains. Their statements are included below:
· In the Capital Region, Albany County Executive Daniel P. McCoy said, “As a former firefighter, I am stunned and disturbed by the fact that critical information is not routinely provided to counties by those transporting crude oil or ethanol within their boundaries. In the event of an accident, first responders need to know exactly what they may come into contact with, how much of it and in what form. And we need to know when these materials are being transported through our area. We need to be adequately prepared and we can’t do that unless we have all the information we need ahead of time.”
· In Western New York, Erie County Emergency Services Commissioner Daniel Neaverth, Jr., said, “Timely accurate information is critical when it comes to ensuring safe transit of any hazardous materials being transported, especially via rail. In Erie County we work day and night to keep residents safe, and accurate, up to date information for training, planning, and emergency response is essential to fulfillment of that mission. That is why Senator Schumer’s efforts to ensure new federal rules will include information sharing with local first responders is so important.”
· In the Rochester-Finger Lakes Region, Monroe County Executive Maggie Brooks said, "With over 46,000 rail cars of crude oil having passed through our community in the past year, it's very important to keep the lines of communication open between rail carriers and first responders when it comes to the transportation of hazardous substances. Monroe County is proud to be served by some of the most dedicated, skilled, and highly-trained first responders anywhere, and we are grateful for Senator Schumer's efforts to help provide them with increased access to time-sensitive data and improve their ability to manage a rail incident that could affect public safety."
Schumer said that it was a good thing that rail companies like CSX have a “SecureNow” agreement with New York State, whereby they share data on their transports, but that the program needs to be expanded and secure information-sharing needs to be required by federal regulation. Further, Schumer explained this federal requirement would ensure that localities receive the important information directly, rather than relying on the state to distribute it. Schumer said he appreciates the sensitive and proprietary nature of this information, and does not expect it to be made public, but he strongly believes essential emergency responders should be able to access a secure database where they can get the information they need. The federal DOT, in its rulemaking process with the FRA and PHMSA or through a mandatory program, would determine the best process for making the identity and location of the hazardous materials on train cars available to local first responders so they have accurate information when they need it.
In the past year, there have been several minor accidents involving the derailment of freight cars transporting crude oil in New York. While no one was injured and no oil spilled, Schumer said these events were like warning shots. On December 10, 2013, several tank cars carrying crude oil derailed in Cheektowaga. On February 25, 2014, several empty tank cars that had contained crude oil derailed in Kingston. On February 28, 2014, 13 tank cars carrying crude oil derailed in the Selkirk Yard near the Port of Albany. Schumer also highlighted a major derailment that occurred six years ago near Oneida, in which four tanker cars carrying propane exploded just outside the city, causing local schools and nearby areas of the city to evacuate.
Schumer, in addition to pushing for better emergency preparedness and information sharing, has long fought for the phase-out or retrofit of the outdated DOT-111 tank car. The DOT-111 tank car is by far the most frequently used rail car to transport crude oil, and it has been shown to be prone to rupture in the event of derailments. DOT-111 cars are not pressurized, unlike pressurized DOT-105 or DOT-112 which have thicker shells and heads and are much less prone to breaching during a derailment. The NTSB found that the heads and shells of DOT-111 cars can almost always be expected to breach in derailments that involve pile-ups or multiple car-to-cart accidents. Schumer succeeding in getting the Association of American Railroads to voluntarily support this course of action, but continues to push for a federal rule which would apply to all rail companies and oil companies that own and operate rail cars carrying crude oil. Crude oil transport via freight rail has surged over the past few years.
Last year, there were more trains carrying crude across North America than ever before: nearly 1,400 carloads a day. In 2009, there were just 31 carloads a day. New York in particular, has experienced this spike, as crude from the Bakken oil deposit in North Dakota is transported to east coast refineries. It is transported on rail lines coming from the West and North towards Albany, where it is either loaded onto barges or tankers to carry it down the Hudson, or continues down along the CSX line through the Hudson Valley towards New Jersey. The CSX line carries crude from Buffalo through Rochester, Syracuse and Utica to Albany, where it then heads south on rail lines along the Hudson River before skirting New York City on its way to New Jersey.
A copy of Senator Schumer’s letter to the DOT appears below:
Dear Secretary Foxx:
I write to urge that the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) include and implement the National Transportation Safety Board’s (NTSB) safety recommendation R-07-04 as part of its revisions to the Hazardous Materials Regulations (HMR) that would enhance safety of rail transport of crude oil and ethanol. In comments to PHMSA’s Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPMR) – Hazardous Materials: Rail Petitions and Recommendations to Improve the Safety of Railroad Tank car transportation, the NTSB urged that you work in collaboration with the Federal Railroad Administration to require railroads provide emergency responders accurate, real time information regarding the identity and location of all hazardous materials on a train. The NTSB made this recommendation years ago, and the NTSB continues to investigate accidents where emergency responders did not receive timely and accurate hazard information from railroad operators. I am deeply concerned that first responders such as firefighters in many cases do not have sufficient information to make critical real time decisions in the event of a significant derailment like in Lac Megantic or Casselton, North Dakota.
I am very concerned that NTSB Safety Recommendation R-07-4, which calls for increased flow of information regarding the contents of a train to first responders, has remained open for more than 5 years and has not been codified into a federal regulation or made available through a permanent secure program for first responders. First responders rely on timely hazard communications to make critical safety decisions, including: determining appropriate isolation distances, deciding whether evacuation or shelter-in-place is appropriate, determining appropriate health and safety protocols for responders and rescuers, and deciding appropriate firefighting tactics. Following the November 30, 2012, derailment of a Conrail freight train with release of vinyl chloride in Paulsboro, New Jersey, the NTSB convened an investigative hearing on July 9–10, 2013. Emergency responders testified at the hearing that their response actions were hindered by the lack of timely and accurate train consist information. According to the NTSB, “the availability of a consist document that conveys the identity and location of hazardous materials on a train involved in an accident is critical to executing a safe emergency response.”
As you are aware, transportation of crude oil and ethanol has grown greatly in the State of New York. It has been brought to my attention by multiple first responders in the Hudson Valley, including firefighters, police chiefs, sheriffs, emergency managers, and county executives in Orange and Rockland Counties, that they have requested but are not receiving more detailed information regarding the contents of hazardous materials moving in rail cars down the Hudson Valley. On various occasions first responders have petitioned CSX, the major railroad in the region, to share with them more information on the timing and content of tank cars carrying hazardous materials in order to be better prepared to respond to an incident and have yet to receive more detailed information. Though I appreciate CSX's efforts to develop the SecureNOW partnership, which provides security officials with access to CSXT's Network Operations Workstation (NOW) system – an online system that allows New York State security and law enforcement officials to independently track the location of CSXT trains and the contents of rail cars in a nearly real-time environment – information sharing must be enforced through a federal regulation and a secure program approved by the DOT.
Information about the content of unit trains, especially those carrying hazardous materials, is absolutely essential to first responders’ efforts to be adequately prepared for a disaster. Knowing what is in the tank cars helps shape many critical decisions and tactics. In order to enhance safety, it is imperative that NTSB Safety Recommendation R-07-04 be satisfied in any future rulemaking by the DOT and PHMSA on the transportation of hazardous materials by rail. Rail companies must be required to provide more in depth and up to date information to first responders.
Sincerely,
Charles E. Schumer
U.S. Senator