MICAH GRIFFIN OF
PICTUREEUGENE FILMS
TRAINS CARRYING
HAZARDOUS MATERIALS
PHOTO TRASK BEDORTHA
tioning someone by the railroad tracks or by asking the rail
companies. Hoover and Griffi n says not only do the placards
indicate what the car carries, if the card is missing or fl ipped
over then the tank is empty.
Hoover says if oil or other substances are stored in town,
it’s reported. But if the train cars are on a siding, meaning
they are ready to roll but remain stationary for a while, as
some tank cars are in west Eugene’s Trainsong Park, that’s
not reported. Railroads report annually what they have
transported, he says, but ODOT has refused to release that
information. If a spill occurs and a hazmat team is deployed,
Hoover says they contain the leaked material and stop the
leak from continuing, “and that’s their sole role.” Once the
spill is contained, owners and operators of facilities or prop-
erty contaminated by hazardous substances are responsible,
under Oregon law, for cleanup.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration does not
list Oregon as having any current petroleum refi neries.
Washington has fi ve and California has 16 operating refi ner-
ies. According to Brett VandenHeuvel of Columbia River-
keeper, crude oil is coming from the Bakken oil fi elds of
North Dakota. He says Canadian tar sands oil is a possibility
as well — while U.S. crude must be refi ned before export
through American ports, Canadian oil can be exported as
crude. Port of Coos Bay spokesperson Elise Hamner says
the port doesn’t export oil, though it’s still controversially
pursuing a liquefi ed natural gas export terminal, which
would be accompanied by a natural gas pipeline.
VandenHeuvel worries about those fossil-fuel trains
spilling into the Columbia River, affecting water and other
resources. “These oil trains are carrying massive volumes
of oil,” he says. “And a spill could be devastating to the
Columbia River. Imagine a train carrying 10 of those [tank
cars] derailing in a salmon nursery.” Oil spills along other
waterways that supply drinking water or chemical leaks into
groundwater would also be devastating.
When asked about oil-by-rail and other chemicals, Union
Pacifi c, which has the north-south tracks along the I-5 corri-
dor, said, “Railroads do not release information about specif-
ic routes or details about particular commodities/shipments
because of safety and security concerns.”
Union Pacifi c spokesperson Aaron Hunt says that the
bag Griffi n fi lmed on one train car passing through down-
town Eugene is vinyl and “is an additional security measure
hydrochloric acid shippers are taking to make sure no one
tampers with their cars while in transportation.” Other cars
observed carrying hydrochloric acid did not have such bags.
SAFETY
Paul Orum, an independent consultant who recently tes-
tifi ed before Congress after the West, Texas, fertilizer ex-
plosion on behalf of the Coalition to Prevent Chemical Di-
sasters, says that “local emergency responders often do not
really have complete information from railroads about what
is shipped through and do not have full public knowledge
about these hazards.”
He gives the example of chlorine gas, which is a toxic
inhalation hazard: “Most communities have very little idea
of what passes through on the rails and the potential harm
of a fully loaded 90-ton rail car of chlorine, which can have
downwind worst-case impacts for 14 to 25 miles.” He adds,
“The vulnerability zones are often much larger and far be-
yond anything that local emergency responders could effec-
tively handle.”
Griffi n documented a number of tank cars of chlorine on
Lane County railways in the past three weeks. In January
2005, a train in Graniteville, S.C., derailed and a tank car
of chlorine was breached, releasing chlorine gas. The train
engineer and eight other people died of chlorine gas inhala-
tion, about 500 people went to the hospital with respiratory
diffi culties and more than 5,000 were evacuated.
Orum says railroads are “common carriers,” required to
carry the hazardous materials, but not allowed to adequately
factor into the shipping price the cost of liability insurance.
He says that while water and wastewater treatment plants
have historically been the largest shippers of chlorine, it’s
commercial industry that uses chlorine and other dangerous
chemicals shipped by rail. He and DeFazio both say that
our regulatory system needs to demand that companies use
fewer toxic and volatile chemicals.
Videoing the trains in Eugene, Griffi n documented chlo-
rine, which is an inhalation hazard; molten phenol which is
fl ammable and toxic; methyl diphenyl diisocyanate, which
the EPA says is a skin and inhalation sensitizer and can cause
asthma, lung damage and, in severe cases, fatal reactions;
explosive non-odorized propane and corrosive hydrochloric
acid, in addition to the crude oil.
Industry demands the chemicals. The shippers, or more
precisely the investors, own the tank cars, and the railways
have to transport them. In addition to using less hazardous
chemicals, DeFazio says the tank cars themselves could be
made safer. ODOT cited the 9/11 security issues when it re-
fused to answer EW’s questions about what tank cars are be-
ing used on Oregon’s railroads, but according to the Nation-
al Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), 69 percent of the
tank cars in use are the soda-can shaped DOT 111 cars that
exploded in the Lac-Mégantic disaster. NTSB says the steel
cars are thin and puncture in accidents. The ends of the cars
can tear, and valves and top fi ttings can break in rollovers.
DeFazio says the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Mate-
rials Safety Administration was “looking at its bellybutton
lint” when it comes to DOT 111 cars. Though the issues
with the cars have been known since a 1991 study, it wasn’t
until recently that the problem was addressed — cars built
after October 2011 that ship ethanol and crude oil now have
thicker shells and shields on the ends of the tanks to prevent
punctures. The problem is that older cars do not have to be
retrofi tted. According to the NTSB the cars have a long ser-
vice life, and commingling the older cars with newer ones
negates the safety benefi ts. DeFazio says the federal govern-
ment could mandate the cars be upgraded in the 2014 rail
reauthorization bill, but he expects industry and Republicans
to fi ght that.
Griffi n’s video shows rusty tank cars fi lled with chemi-
cals, leaks that have dripped from railcars rolling by and
how easy it is for someone to leap onto a train. The footage
shows these cars passing businesses, houses, people, moun-
tain lakes and forests.
Lisa Arkin of Beyond Toxics says the dangerous and
leaking tank cars are both an environmental and a social
injustice: “Our local railroads not only transport but park
tankers in neighborhoods,” she says, “which serves to illus-
trate the monstrously common problem of disproportional
impacts — the tankers are old and they do leak.” She says
neighborhoods including Whiteaker, River Road, Trainsong
and Bethel, which are historically lower-income, face the
most hazards.
Griffi n says if there is one thing he has learned from train
hopping, it’s to take an inventory of what you really need
versus what you simply want. Having too much stuff will get
you killed hopping a train, he says. His sleeping bag almost
got him dragged under a railcar’s wheels; noisy utensils got
him caught by the “bull dog” (train security). He learned to
dress in layers and eat fruit from Dumpsters instead.
Griffi n says a train carrying hydrochloric acid through
town is a byproduct of consumer commodities. He says the
question to ask ourselves, if we want any type of healthy
future, is: Do we really need those commodities?
Go to eugeneweekly.com for the tank car video by PictureEugene
eugeneweekly.com • A ugust 15, 2013
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