WASHINGTON -- The Transportation Department issued an emergency order Wednesday requiring that railroads inform state emergency-management officials before moving large shipments of crude oil through their states, and urged railroads not to use older model tanks cars that are easily ruptured in accidents, even at slow speeds.
The emergency order requires that each railroad operating trains containing more than 1 million gallons of crude oil -- about 35 tank cars -- from the booming Bakken region of North Dakota, Montana and part of Canada provide information on their movement to states they traverse.
Much of the oil from the region is being shipped in trains of 100 cars or more that accident investigators have described as "moving pipelines." The trains move through small towns and big cities alike across the country.
Concern about the safe transport of crude oil was heightened after a runaway oil train derailed and exploded in July in the small town of Lac-Megantic, Quebec, Canada, just across the border from Maine. More than 60 tank cars spilled more than 1.3 million gallons of oil. Forty-seven people were killed and 30 buildings destroyed in resulting inferno.
"All options are on the table when it comes to improving the safe transportation of crude oil, and today's actions, the latest in a series that make up an expansive strategy, will ensure that communities are more informed and that companies are using the strongest possible tank cars," Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said in a statement.
The emergency order comes after a warning two weeks ago from outgoing National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Deborah Hersman that the department risks a "higher body count" as the result of fiery oil-train accidents if it waits for new safety regulations to become final.
Spokesman for both Union Pacific Railroad Co. and BNSF Railway confirmed in March that the two railroads route tank cars filled with crude oil through Arkansas.
The timing and amounts of crude-oil shipments typically have been known only by the railroads, which consider the information proprietary for competitive reasons as well as security.
Kenny Harmon, manager of the Hazardous Materials Program for the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management, said Wednesday that he hadn't been notified of the Transportation Department's new notification policy.
The state Emergency Management Department's role has been to provide training and additional resources to assist city fire departments to respond to a wide range of rail accidents, including derailments or spills involving crude oil, Harmon said.
Advance information on crude-oil shipments could be something individual fire departments might like to know, he said, since they'd be the first to arrive to an accident scene.
"If they have an incident and get overwhelmed, I can provide them resources," Harmon said.
He said none of the federal officials who spoke at a conference he attended in April mentioned the notification-policy change. The officials did say there would be a push to eliminate older DOT-111 tank cars used for shipping crude deemed to pose a greater risk in an accident, he added.
Arkansas is one of 20 states that doesn't have its own inspection program to monitor rail-car and track safety. Even in states with federally authorized Rail State Safety Participation Programs, final responsibility rests with the Federal Railroad Administration and the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.
Information for this article was contributed by Joan Lowy of The Associated Press and by Glen Chase of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Business on 05/08/2014