‘Bomb train’ incidents predictable, Firefighters speak out

Latest ‘bomb train’ incident predictable

Kathleen Sloan | The Hawk Eye, Burlington, Iowa    May 11, 2015   Bakken.com

BNSF Railway carried the Hess Corp.-owned rail car, which carried highly volatile Bakken crude oil from North Dakota and appears to have followed the law.

President Barack Obama weighed and rejected using executive authority to curb the transport of this explosive crude oil, rich in butane and propane, because he decided North Dakota state law should be the controlling authority. But the law North Dakota passed in December and went into effect just last month, only requires less than 13.7 pounds-per-square-inch vapor pressure inside the tanker, despite explosions at lower pressures.

That’s almost 40 percent more than the average vapor pressure among the 63 tanker cars that exploded July 6, 2013, at Lac-Megantic, Quebec. That disaster killed 47 people, some of whom could not be found because they were vaporized, and is driving recent federal and state rail car regulations.

According to an Albany, N.Y., Times Union investigation, the average vapor pressure among 72 tanker cars in the Lac-Megantic train was 10 psi.....

....Experts in various news articles and public comment submitted during the federal rule-making stated the way to make transport safe is to refine the crude before shipping. That would involve building refineries near the extraction point, which experts pointed out would be expensive.

In a Sept. 26, 2014, story, Railway Age contributing editor David Thomas applauded North Dakota for “using state jurisdiction over natural resources to fill the vacuum created by the federal government’s abdication of its constitutional responsibility for rail safety and hazardous materials.”
But Thomas admitted the state law on crude treatment would reduce the danger only slightly.

“Simply put, North Dakotan crude will have to be lightly pressure-cooked to boil off a fraction of the volatile ‘light ends’ before shipment,” Thomas said. “This conditioning lowers the ignition temperature of crude oil — but not by much. It leaves in solution most of the culprit gases, including butane and propane. Even the industry itself says conditioning would not make Bakken crude meaningfully safer for transportation, though it would make the state’s crude more consistent from one well to another.”

“The only solution for safety is stabilization, which evaporates and re-liquifies nearly all of the petroleum gases for separate delivery to refiners,” Thomas said.

He points out owners and shippers in the Eagle Fork formation in Texas, voluntarily stabilize their crude before shipping. It’s more volatile than Bakken crude.....    more here

Firefighters' Union Says New Oil-By-Rail Rules Fall Short

Kate Sheppard   HuffPost    05/05/15

WASHINGTON -- The largest union representing firefighters in North America said Tuesday that a new Department of Transportation rule for transporting oil by rail does not go far enough to enable firefighters to respond effectively in the case of an accident.

Released on Friday, the new rule from the Department of Transportation's Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration and the Federal Railroad Administration covers trains carrying oil and other highly flammable liquids. It includes new standards for how tank cars used to transport those liquids must be constructed, and it changes requirements for routing and speed. The DOT's description of the new rule also notes that it requires railroads to provide state, local and tribal governments with "a railroad point of contact for information related to the routing of hazardous materials through their jurisdictions."

It's that information-sharing part of the rule that has the union concerned. Its general president, Harold Schaitberger, wrote in an email that because time is so critical when responding to accidents, emergency personnel need information about what a train is carrying up front, instead of just having a point of contact to find out later.

“Fire fighters depend on all available information to launch an effective response to emergencies like oil explosions. They need to know what trains are carrying and when," Schaitberger said. "These new rules fall short of requiring rail operators to provide the information fire departments need to respond effectively when the call arrives." .....

.....The DOT's rule indicated that such disclosure might have "negative security and business implications." But Schaitberger said the lack of transparency could be deadly.

“Trains carrying combustible crude oil continue to move regularly through populated communities and pose a serious and immediate safety threat," said Schaitberger.....  more here

State gets oil train reports via back door

While feds grant railways secrecy, new law requires disclosure by refineries 

By Lauren Dake,   The Columbian   May 9, 2015

Recently released oil train safety regulations could undermine transparency efforts at the national level, but Washington state officials are hoping a new state law will ensure access to information about volatile Bakken crude oil moving through the region.......  more here

 

Energy, Transportation depts to study volatility of crude by rail

Looking to delay regulations?? let's do a 'study'!

Energy, Transportation departments to study volatility of oil moved by rail

By Curtis Tate   McClatchy DC   April 28, 2015 

The federal government will conduct a two-year study of how crude oil volatility affects the commodity’s behavior in train derailments, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz told a Senate panel Tuesday.

The Energy Department will coordinate the study with the Department of Transportation, Moniz told the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

After a series of fiery train derailments, the Transportation Department concluded early last year that light, sweet crude oil from North Dakota’s Bakken region is more volatile than other kinds.

But derailments involving ethanol and other types of crude oil have cast doubt on whether Bakken is likely to react more severely than other flammable liquids transported by rail.

The petroleum industry has been citing its own studies and a recent report from the Energy Department’s Sandia National Laboratory to support its position that there’s no difference. But it’s clear that more crude oil is moving by rail, and an increase in serious accidents has come with that increased volume.

Moniz said the Sandia report was “the most comprehensive literature survey in terms of properties of different oils” but showed the need for more research to determine their relevance in train derailments.

The joint Energy-Transportation study would look at other kinds of crude moving by rail, such as light crude from west Texas and heavy crude from western Canada.

Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., a member of the Senate Energy panel who requested the departments work together on a study, noted that there had been four derailments of oil trains in the U.S. and Canada since the beginning of the year.

“A number of high-profile incidents have underscored major safety concerns,” she said.

On April 1, North Dakota began setting vapor pressure limits for crude oil loaded in tank cars at no more than 13.7 pounds per square inch.

But the crude oil tested in many serious derailments had a lower vapor pressure than the new standard.....   more here

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2015/04/28/264789/energy-transportation-departments.html#storylink=cpy

House Rail Safety Bill Introduced; Admin Calls for Stricter Drilling Regs

Thompson authors rail safety act

  April 19, 2015   Martinez News-Gazette

A second group of federal lawmakers has introduced legislation to regulate the transport of crude oil by rail.

U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson (D-Calif.) yesterday introduced the Crude-By-Rail Safety Act (H.R. 1804), which the congressman said would set new safety and security standards to address growing concerns that current standards fail to address the threat posed by transporting crude oil by rail.

Thompson said the bill would “establish new, common sense federal safety standards for railcars transporting oil across the country.”.

The act would take on a number of factors, including maximum volatility standard for crude oil transported by rail, higher fines for violating volatility standards and hazmat transport standards. The act will also seek to remove 37,700 unsafe cars off the rail network and recommend other measures to increase the safety of crude by rail.

“Public safety is priority No. 1 when it comes to transporting highly volatile crude oil,” Thompson said in the release.....

....“Rail cars transporting crude run through the heart of our communities, and as recent accidents have demonstrated, robust, comprehensive action is needed,” Thompson said in a press release....

According to Thompson, the bill would:
• establish a maximum volatility standard for crude oil;
• prohibit the use of DOT-111 tank cars;
• require comprehensive oil spill response planning and studies;
• increase fines for violating volatility and hazmat transport standards;
• require disclosure of train movements through communities and emergency response plans; and
• require railroads to implement a confidential close-call reporting system.
 ....  more here



 In this Wednesday, April 21, 2010 file photo, a large plume of smoke rises from fires on BP's Deepwater Horizon offshore oil rig. (AP Photo)

 

Five Years After BP Oil Spill: New Regulations Call for Extensive Drilling Industry Reform

By Rachelle Gaynor, AccuWeather.com   4/20/15

April 20 marks the five-year anniversary of the BP oil spill that occurred in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. The explosion, and subsequent 87-day-long oil leak, was the country's worst maritime petroleum spill in history. As a response to this tragedy, referred to as the Deepwater Horizon tragedy, several proposals came out to limit and regulate offshore drilling for oil and gas wells.

Last week, the Obama administration issued a new report that calls for strict regulations and safety enhancements to offshore oil and gas drilling. This is believed to be the most extensive set of regulations to be approved since the accident occurred five years ago.

"This rule builds on enhanced industry standards for blowout preventers to comprehensively address well design, well control and overall drilling safety," Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewel said in a press release....

...One major focus of the new regulations is the blowout preventer, a piece of safety equipment that malfunctioned in the Deepwater Horizon tragedy which resulted in "the loss of well control, an explosion, fire and subsequent days-long spill," Jewel explained.

"In addition to more stringent design requirements, the proposed rule requires improved controls of all repair and maintenance activities through the lifecycle of the blowout preventer and other well control equipment," she said.

Some of the other adjustments that the rule proposes are changes to overall well design, real-time monitoring of the wells and more immediate containment of leaks if they occur.