(The following article by Sharon Coolidge was posted on the Cincinnati Enquirer on September 30.)
CINCINNATI — An improper keystroke into a computer is how a rail car that leaked the dangerous chemical styrene into the air last month ended up in Linwood, according to documents the railroad gave lawyers representing neighborhood residents and businesses.
The revelation came during an informal hearing in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court Thursday morning among 19 lawyers and Judge Melba Marsh, who has been assigned the case.
“You don’t put a dangerous explosive chemical in a community’s back yard,” said Colleen Hegge of the law firm of Statman, Harris, Siegel & Eyrich, lead counsel for people suing the railroad and chemical company. “To us, it was a time bomb.”
Lawyer Jim O’Connell, who represents Indiana & Ohio Rail Corp. and Rail America, declined to comment.
An Indiana & Ohio Railway employee routing the rail car from Louisiana hit an improper code, triggering automatic routing that showed the car heading for Michigan, instead of Cincinnati, according to documents given to The Enquirer by Hegge. Details in the documents were discussed in the hearing.
Why the error was not caught and corrected remains unexplained.
Westlake Chemical Corp. used the railroad to ship the 24,000 gallons of styrene to the Queen City Terminal in the East End, where it would have been stored in a half-million-gallon tank.
The rail car never made it to Queen City Terminal. Instead, it was shuffled from track to track before it was left in Linwood for five months.
The records detail the rail car’s path: Dec. 30, Westlake Chemical sent the rail car containing 24,000 gallons of styrene from a plant in Sulphur, La., to Hamilton County.
The car pulled into Sharonville Jan. 21 and the same day was moved to a terminal near Tanner and Delmar avenues in Pleasant Ridge. It stayed there for seven days before being moved to McCullough Yard in Norwood. There, it was moved from track to track until being sent to Linwood March 21. It sat there until city officials noticed it leaking the evening of Aug. 28.
The next day, as styrene continued to leak, 814 properties in the East End were evacuated, and hundreds more people nearby were ordered to remain inside with their windows closed and air conditioners turned off. People weren’t allowed to return home until Aug. 31.
Had the proper routing code been entered, Queen City Terminal would have known the car was coming, Hegge said.
Wednesday, lawyers who filed seven separate lawsuits in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court on behalf of residents and businesses affected by the leak filed a joint lawsuit naming Westlake Chemical, Westlake Styrene, Rail America, Indiana & Ohio Rail Corp., Queen City Terminal and Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, which operates Queen City Terminals Inc., as defendants.
The suit accuses the companies of negligence, causing a nuisance and trespassing because hazardous chemicals entered plaintiffs’ land, water and air. It seeks compensatory and punitive damages.
The lawyers will ask the judge to certify the case as a class action.
Thousands of people could join the case, said attorney Alan Statman, who is the lead counsel for the neighbors and businesses. Some people have settled privately with the Indiana & Ohio Railway.
During Thursday’s hearing, Stan Chesley, who is representing the city of Cincinnati in a separate lawsuit against the rail companies and Westlake, asked Marsh to appoint a special master who would work with the city and the defendants on a settlement in the city’s case. Marsh said she would do that as early as today and said she hopes the case can be resolved by Dec. 1, when a new mayor is sworn in.
Chesley said he is willing to forgo punitive damages in exchange for payment of liability. But he cautioned that damages go beyond law enforcement and emergency services overtime. For example, Lunken Airport was closed by the leak.