This story was published on Aug. 15, 2010, in the (Binghamton, N.Y.) Press & Sun-Bulletin.
Trains carrying deadly chemicals rumble through our backyards every day, but railroad companies hauling them refuse to publicly disclose exactly what those substances are, or how often they travel through the area.
Only the railroads are required to know what’s in the cars they’re shipping, said Federal Railroad Administration spokesman Warren Flatau.
Local emergency workers, who would respond to a leak, spill or fire, have no knowledge of what’s being transported on those cars until an accident happens.
So what’s behind all the secrecy?
And can local HAZMAT teams adequately prepare for emergencies if they aren’t sure which chemicals are being brought through and with how much frequency?
Railroad authorities say it’s a matter of national security. But, advocates for the public argue the rail cars are clearly marked, and if terrorists wanted to find a car full of hazardous material, they easily could. An Emergency Response Guidebook, used by first responded during derailments and other HAZMAT incidents, provides a list of codes and their corresponding chemicals. The information can also be found with a quick Internet search.
“They think that having the public know about the shipments of these cargoes is somehow a security breach,” said Fred Millar, a Washington D.C.-based consultant on HAZMAT transportation issues and national security. “That is absolutely ridiculous. These are gigantic tank cars with placards on the side going to and from the same places.
“The only people being kept in the dark are the American public.”
The FRA said while they don’t disclose specifics, they make an effort to keep emergency workers informed.
“Upon request, local officials will be provided … the top chemicals transported on an annual basis,” Flatua said.
He noted they aren’t required to provide a list of every chemical transported, or the quantity — something Broome County emergency workers have been concerned about since a derailment of hazardous chemicals in June.
Two of three railroad companies that travel through Broome County, including the one that travels through Chemung and Steuben counties, refused to disclose a list of chemicals they transport when asked to do so by this newspaper.
The smaller company New York Susquehanna & Western Railway, which carries less hazardous chemicals showed this newspaper its HAZMAT profile. The most dangerous chemical it transports is propane, supervisor Joe White said.
Norfolk Southern and Canadian Pacific — both bigger railroads that routinely carry deadly inhalants such as chlorine and ammonia — wouldn’t release such information.
If chlorine or ammonia were to escape from a punctured tanker in an accident or derailment, it would form a toxic cloud. A compromised 90-ton rail car of chlorine could create a plume 15 miles long by 5 miles wide, according to The Chlorine Institute.
The result could be deadly.
“It hugs the ground. It’s a perfect killing cloud,” Millar said. “And the reason that we know it’s a perfect killing cloud is it was used in WWI to kill soldiers on all sides.
“It is a well-known terror weapon and we ship it through our communities like it was peanut butter.”
But only the railroads know when these chemicals are loaded on a train.
“Norfolk Southern does not make public details of specific hazardous commodities moving through any communities,” spokesman Rudy Husband said.
“If Broome County would like to make a request, they can provide that information (to the public). That’s their decision. We feel that it’s better from a security standpoint to keep that information nonpublic.”
Canadian Pacific said the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Department of Homeland Security “bar railroads from making that information public through media.”
A spokesman could not cite specific directives in which this was communicated to railroads.
A close call
Disclosure was a concern for Broome emergency personnel on June 2, when a car carrying residual amounts of chlorine and anhydrous ammonia derailed in the center of Binghamton, at Crandall and Thorp streets.
When the cars derailed, Norfolk Southern did not alert local emergency officials because it didn’t believe there was any potential danger to the public, Husband said.
Emergency personnel learned about the derailment two hours later when someone at a nearby senior citizen’s center called concerned, asking if the senior center should be evacuated.
“We should immediately be notified of a derailment involving hazardous materials and serious derailments, and not wait for (the railroad) to size up and investigate the whole thing and decide whether there’s a hazard to the people,” Broome County Emergency Manager Brett Chellis said. “We need to know immediately so we can be prepared to move people if we need to, especially in a populated area like Binghamton. That’s our biggest concern.”
Though the tanks were “effectively empty,” according to railroad officials, tank cars carrying residual amounts of chemicals can still hold up to a few hundred gallons of product, Chellis said.
Four cars derailed during the incident. There was minor damage to the outside of at least one car, and though the cars remained upright, they leaned slightly. Though local officials weren’t called, Norfolk Southern brought in a private environmental monitoring company.
“I questioned them,” Chellis said. “I said ‘if you were so sure there was no release, and you didn’t need to call, why do you have these people here?’ And they were like, ‘well, we like to document the fact that there was no release in case someone questions it.’”
“This was such a minor incident,” Husband said. “The cars remained upright, there were no leaks. They were empty. There really wasn’t any obligation on our part to notify local officials.”
He said Norfolk Southern would have contacted the locals had there been a leak, or if the cars had been on their side.
Federal Railroad Administration spokesman Rob Kulat was surprised to hear the incident wasn’t immediately reported to local emergency personnel While the decision is a judgment call, a major factor in deciding whether to contact local officials — even if there isn’t a leak — is where the derailment occurs, Kulat said. In this case, the hazardous material cars came off the tracks in the middle of the city.
“If it’s in a downtown or residential area, yes, but if it’s in the middle of nowhere, no,” Kulat said.
First Ward councilwoman Teri Rennia said those who live in the area, which includes senior citizens centers and is in the middle of a residential neighborhood, were alarmed by the incident.
“I think that it’s very unnerving for my constituents who live in that neighborhood,” Rennia said. “They were quite upset that no one had reached out to them. Cause the next time, it might be something to be concerned about.”
Less concern elsewhere
Railroad tracks run right through the middle of heavily populated areas in Chemung and Steuben counties, but local emergency officials say they aren’t overly concerned about a toxic spill.
If a derailment and major spill occurred in downtown Elmira or other population center, the main responsibility of local authorities would be to get people out of harm’s way, said Michael S. Smith, Chemung County fire and emergency services director.
“It would be beyond our capability to deal with it locally,” he said.
“Our (Elmira) fire department has a material response team that is competent and well-trained. But they don’t operate at a level that would allow them to do remediation on something of that magnitude. We would look to the railroad to quickly bring in hazardous material companies. What we would be looking for would be to get people out of harm’s way.”
Officials say they have a general idea about the types of materials that come through, but they have no idea what or how much is coming through at any given time. Smith said one of the most common and volatile materials shipped through the area is propane.
Knowing hazardous materials are shipped through the area on a daily basis is not a major cause for concern, as long as there is a plan to deal with it, he said.
“Not any more than it does knowing that the river goes through the area It’s a hazard we know exists and we live with it,” Smith said. “We keep an eye on them, and I guess awareness is the key. We know it’s beyond our capability to deal with. The issue is appropriate response.”
Fire departments in Schuyler County are also trained to handle small hazardous material spills, but would have to call in reinforcements in the event a major spill involving rail cars, said county emergency management coordinator William Kennedy.
“Part of our response plan is if it’s in a populated area, evacuate to a distance and then the railroad would bring in a team to clean up the mess,” said Kennedy, who said he isn’t aware of much toxic material passing through Schuyler.
With several major highways, Steuben County is more likely to have a hazardous material spill from a truck than a train, said county emergency services director Michael Sprague.
Steuben County did have an incident a few years ago when a Norfolk Southern railcar carrying butane went off the track at the Gang Mills rail yard.
That incident was reported by a passerby, not the railroad, but there was no actual spill or leak, Sprague said.
“We need an actual spillage before the railroad needs to call us,” he said. “In this case, the railroad felt they had it under control, so they weren’t telling anybody. If s debatable, but if there’s a release (of chemicals), they notify us right away.
“We know it’s there every day,” Sprague said. “There’s the potential. It’s always there.”
Are we prepared?
While most emergency responders across the region said they’re appropriately prepared for a hazardous materials derailment some admit there is only so much an agency can prepare for.
“We have trained, and we try to make ourselves as prepared as possible, but I don’t think anyone is fully trained and prepared for a multi-train derailment of the worst-case scenario,” Elmira Fire Capt Carlo Masia said. Elmira’s fire department serves as the HAZMAT team for Chemung County. It’s comprised of 48 members.
Chemung, as well as HAZMAT teams in Steuben and Broome counties, are equipped with air-tight suits that allow them to walk into toxic clouds, and equipment to help repair a rail car leak. Still, the equipment has its limits.
Steuben, Chemung and Broome counties each have a kit to repair chlorine leaks, but they each have only one. The kits are specifically designed to fit over the valve at the top of the tanker, where most leaks occur, said Binghamton Asst. Fire Chief Richard Allen Jr., who is also the training instructor for the department He noted it would be extremely uncommon to have more than one rail car leaking from their valves.
“If you end up with a rupture on the side of the tank itself, which is extremely hard to do … you’re probably not going to stop that type of leak,” Allen said.
The HAZMAT team would make evacuation a top priority and attempt to stop or slow the leak with other equipment he said. They have airbags and material to wrap around a train car with a leak on the side.
In the case of a chemical inferno?
“Usually with types of things like that unfortunately, the reality is a lot of times you just have to stand back and let the product just burn off,” Allen said. “… Sometimes the fire actually helps detoxify the chemical.”
But exactly what chemical is leaking is extremely important Ifs why Chemung County’s team has a chemical hazard intervention team, comprised of chemists from local industries.
“They advise us how to respond to different chemicals,” Masia said. Broome’s team also has members from Binghamton University and former IBM workers with knowledge on the subject
Because the response to each chemical is different and, the wrong response can exacerbate the situation, Allen said teams could benefit from newly developed equipment that helps HAZMAT teams distinguish what they’re dealing with. With a price tag of $40,000, the equipment is cost-prohibitive for most departments.
Though HAZMAT crews can determine the contents of rail cars labeled with a placard, Allen noted the possibility exists that the train crew could die or placards could be bidden or fall off in a serious disaster.
“I think it’d be something that would be great but I think it’s something that neither (the city) or the county can afford,” Allen said.
This is exactly why it’s so important for local emergency workers to be kept in the loop as to what’s going through the county, Chellis said.
The June derailment has made the Broome County emergency planning committee consider more closely what’s coming through the rails on a daily basis. Chellis said in the three years he’s been emergency manager the committee hasn’t requested a log of the products that are being brought through on the rails and the approximate frequency, but he is working on making requests to Norfolk Southern, Canadian Pacific and New York Susquehanna & Western Railway.
The logs could help the city and county HAZMAT teams assess the equipment necessary and use Homeland Security funds to better prepare for an emergency, Chellis said.
“If we can get a list of the products they’re bringing through, and we can get a list of the approximate frequency, we can review that, compare it to our planning, look at our capabilities of our HAZMAT teams, and see whether there’s any additional resources that they need,” Chellis said.
“This stuff does have to get moved, obviously. But we certainly think the railroad should be proactive in keeping us informed.”
Staff writer Jeff Murray contributed to this report.