Oil Train Intrusion

Old CP Rail logo. 

The beaver has been eradicated on their new logo.

North Country residents are preoccupied with the outdoors - work, chores, crops, and cold weather preparations consume most of our energy, and any spare time is spent with family, hiking, getting ready for deer season, fishing or chatting about all this stuff with neighbors. What happens outside the Blue Line is generally of little consequence. Exceptions typically involve the cost of the latest idiotic school mandate or the equally idiotic feel-good firearm-law-du jour out of Albany. 

But a catastrophe that happened outside the Blue Line last year managed to get everyone's attention, even though it was 250 miles away. 

On July 6, 2013, a runaway 'oil train', - a long string of tank cars transporting Bakken crude oil - derailed at Lac-Mégantic, Quebec. When these cars derail they also ignite. The oil companies aren't required to boil off the volatiles before rail transport as required for pipeline transport. So they save money by not doing that but the oil train crude has a lower flashpoint. When that energetic fuel ignited the explosion created a blast zone over a mile in diameter. That flattened the downtown area, polluted the lake and killed 46 people. 

Oil Tank Car BLEVE at Lac-Mégantic, Quebec.

The initial reaction here probably involved a glance at the headlines but a longer gaze at the sky, as the weather determines the cadence of work. Oh, it was unfortunate but it was one of so many outside-our-world tragedies. Then we realized that this accident could have happened here, as there are 100 miles of track inside the park, right along Lake Champlain's western shore. 

Adirondack Oil Train Enroute to Albany

Every day a Canadian Pacific Rail oil train rumbles through Port Kent, 25 miles from us, enroute to refineries in Albany. The Feds control the rails so CP Rail can ignore operational inquiries from state and local governments. Railroads have a rich tradition of arrogance. But anyone can count cars so we know they ship a million gallons of crude oil through Essex County every day. 

The quantity of oil shipped through here has increased exponentially in the last 5 years and it'll further increase if the Keystone pipeline is cancelled. The oil companies are hedging their options by seeking modifications to refineries to process the dirtier Alberta tar sands oil. The industries are directing their obedient servants (aka, our elected representatives) to fast-track modification permits, specifically the Albany refineries. It's entirely possible that another million gallons of crude oil a day could be transported through Adirondack Park in the next few years.  

In fairness, CP Rail didn't cause the Lac-Mégantic catastrophe. Another railroad, Montreal, Maine & Atlantic, was responsible for that. MMA quickly realized they were mind-numbingly negligent and preemptively declared bankruptcy only a month after the accident, basically conceding every lawsuit. (They also didn't have to repay their $20 million US government loan.) Ah, it's swell to be judgment-proof. 

Here's one example of their incompetence, which happened the night of the accident: MMA thought it was perfectly ok for their engineer to essentially abandon their train carrying a quarter billion dollars' worth of oil, and get some rest at a nearby motel. And so it was parked next to busy highway, and left unattended overnight...with the locomotive door unlocked and its (damaged) engine running. While the engineer was asleep the engine blew, caught fire and the local fire department responded by shutting the fuel and pulling the circuit breakers, all per procedure. That put the fire out. Unfortunately that also shut down the air compressor supplying the air brakes and the engineer didn't apply the parking brakes. As the air slowly bled down, the train lost its brakes and rolled a few miles downhill, gaining speed and blasting through 13 grade crossings, until it finally derailed and exploded in downtown Lac-Mégantic.

Given this level of industry incompetence, it's amazing that there isn't more train accidents. CP Rail averages about ten derailments per year - for over 14,000 miles of track.

Corporations coldly analyze the cost vs. safety benefits of adding crew, strengthening the tankers, shortening the trains, slowing them down, upgrading the track, improving operational safety practices...and training/equipping the emergency responders. The decision makers must have determined that the benefits aren't worth the cost. Besides, they don't even live near the train tracks, also known as the Blast Danger Area.

A Lac-Mégantic-class accident here would overwhelm the first responders - and probably all the subsequent responders, too. There's not enough Class B foam or tankers in all of Essex County to knock down what's known as a cascading BLEVE (boiling liquid expanding vapor explosion). It took two days for 150 firefighters to extinguish the Lac-Mégantic fire...in other words, it just burned itself out. The environmental cleanup is still underway, over a year - and a billion (taxpayer) dollars - later.

Corporate budgets for common decency were zeroed out years ago - if they ever existed at all. In desperation, communities must now badger the federal government to force railroads to clean up their act. The process starts with concerned citizens who arrange public forums that the politicians can only ignore at their peril. Railroad and oil execs get anxious when the people notice how out of control they are and the commoners demand no-brainer regulations. 

Citizens may, for instance, request an end to the current practice of one employee, working 12 hour shifts, single-handedly operating a mile-long oil train. The railroads adore the labor efficiency and are undoubtedly developing drone trains to bring their labor costs closer to zero. But the public isn't enamored with one overworked locomotive engineer piloting an oil train that has the explosive potential of 25 tons of TNT. 

Thus, Suzy and I attended a public forum at the Whallensburg Grange this week. It was well attended by a collection of politicians, media and concerned citizens. Some of the attendees abused the Q&A session with bloviating questions seemingly designed, but failing, to impress the rest of us. 

Overall, it was a successful event because it grabbed the attention of the politicians and media. Additional, larger meetings are being scheduled. You can sense that something's going to change - after the inevitable stonewalling and perhaps another catastrophe or two.

With a little persistence and luck the people may indeed prevail on the oil train issue...perhaps the ethanol and propane trains, too!

Town Meeting on Oil Trains at The Grange in Whallensburg