Despite assurances from industry that behemoth trains carrying thousands of gallons of crude oil are safe, evidence continues to show that's not always the case.
A CSX train derailed and burned in Lynchburg, VA, on Wednesday afternoon, spilling oil into the James River. Hundreds have been evacuated.
Officials say there were no injuries.
According to Reuters:
The fiery derailment occurred a short distance from office buildings in downtown Lynchburg, a city of 77,000. The incident was sure to prompt critics to call for stricter regulations of the burgeoning business of shipping crude oil by rail.
The story notes:
Several trains carrying crude oil have derailed over the past year, prompting critics to question the safety of hauling explosive liquids by rail. Last July, a runaway train in Lac-Megantic, Quebec, derailed and exploded, killing 47 people.
And:
Local communities, particularly those in New York and the Pacific Northwest, have grown concerned about the sometimes mile-long oil trains that have been rolling across the country. Previous derailments have occurred in places as far removed as Alberta and Quebec in Canada, and North Dakota and Alabama in the United States.
In Virginia, environmental groups have raised alarm about the new traffic in crude oil - including light and volatile crude from North Dakota's Bakken region - that is being transported by rail to the Yorktown terminal, which can handle 140,000 barrels per day.
The
Richmond Times Dispatch says, "Lynchburg has declared a state of emergency and Richmond has begun to switch to an alternate water supply after a train carrying crude oil derailed today, spilling oil into the James River upstream from Richmond's primary water supply."
A March posting in desmogblog says that federal regulators have weakened rules designed to improve safe oil transport by rail:
Nine days after announcing new regulations designed to improve oil-by-rail safety, the Department of Transportation quietly weakened the rules for testing rail cars and exempted shippers of bitumen from having to meet the new regulations.
The department had been under pressure from industry since announcing new regulations in response to a round of testing on shipments of Bakken crude oil that found companies had classified crudes as less hazardous than they were in 11 of 18 rail cars.
Read the blog piece linked above; it seems to be a very good summation of the issues.