(The following article by Amy Wold was posted on the Baton Rouge Advocate website on September 15.)
BATON ROUGE, La. — Hundreds and possibly thousands of railcars in the area hit by Hurricane Katrina could be an environmental hazard.
The problem for state Department of Environmental Quality staff is in not knowing what or where that hazard might be.
Assistant DEQ secretary Wilbert Jordan said that conservatively there may 1,000 railroad cars in the impacted area, but that number could be as high as 5,000.
The largest number of these railroad cars are likely in the New Orleans area but some are in other affected areas as well, he said.
In this heavily industrial part of the state, chemicals such as chlorine, sulfuric acid and others that pose hazards to human health are routinely transported by rail.
“Immediately after the hurricane passed, we started getting anecdotal evidence that there were rail cars strewn about,” McDaniel said. Satellite photos confirmed that what they were hearing was true, he said.
“Some of the tracks are no longer there,” he said.
The flood waters and wind left railroad cars tipped over, off the tracks or in flood waters.
DEQ staff sent letters to railroads on Sept. 4 requesting information about where their rail cars were located, what materials they were carrying and the condition of those rail cars after the storm.
Some railroads responded, but none of them responded with complete information, McDaniel said. The railroad company CSX provided the most complete information, but even that company didn’t provide a location and condition of each of its cars.
“Initial response was pretty anemic outside the one company,” McDaniel said Monday. So, on Sept. 9 McDaniel issued an administrative order to 17 railroad companies asking for the information again.
Some railroad companies have provided some information that has allowed DEQ’s toxicology department to start prioritizing reported chemicals for danger — “Which ones are the ones that have the shortest fuse on them,” McDaniel explained.
That information will be shared with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Then, McDaniel said, the job becomes trying to find where the chemical-containing cars are located.
“That’s part of the frustration, we still have a few that haven’t responded,” McDaniel said about the railroad companies on Monday. “Right now, we’re just guessing, which is what I think is disturbing a lot of us.”
Jordan said that by Wednesday, only one company had failed to provide any information — the New Orleans Public Belt. The other 16 companies provided information that ranged from detailed lists of car contents to statements that the company didn’t have any cars in the affected area.
However, he said in an e-mail response, “additional information as to specific locations and the actual conditions of the rail cars is still not available at this time.” He also said that railroad companies are providing daily updates as well.
Doing a car-by-car search to compare each identification number with a database of information provided by railroad companies is going to take some time, McDaniel said.
Although flyovers of railroad cars using specialized equipment haven’t detected leaks in railroad cars yet, there are limitations to what can be seen from the air. McDaniel said that some of the equipment picks up only certain chemicals and that other leaks could be hidden under the overturned tank cars.
Currently, none of the air monitoring has picked up chemicals or other toxins in the air, which is good. But there could be some chemicals in tankers out there that are not meant to be in that container for very long and could end up corroding from the inside out, he said.
“We haven’t seen an explosion or a visible release, but then we haven’t been on the ground. This (information so far) has been aerial,” McDaniel said.
The administrative order issued Friday gives the 17 railroad companies 24 hours to respond, but both Jordan and McDaniel didn’t seem to think that was likely. In addition, McDaniel said DEQ doesn’t have authority to impose fines or take actions if the companies refuse to respond.
“We don’t regulate railroads, so this is a little prodding,” McDaniel said.
In an e-mail response to questions, Union Pacific Railroad Co. spokesman Mark Davis said the company had one locomotive and several rail cars that couldn’t be moved out of the area before the storm because they needed repairs.
He wrote that the rail yard in Avondale didn’t have water over the rails. All other railcars had been moved north and put on side tracks from Donaldsonville to Livonia and that information had been provided to DEQ, he wrote.
C. Doniele Kane, director of corporate communications and community affairs with Kansas City Southern, wrote in an e-mail response that the company has responded to the DEQ’s request for information.
“All cars are upright on dry rails and, to the best we have been able to determine, are in good condition,” Kane wrote.
Ed Chapman, director of hazardous materials for Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway Co., wrote that the company had been in touch with the EPA since Sept. 6. Chapman wrote that all but two shipments under the company’s direct control were moved out of the area before the storm. The two trains that remained at the New Orleans Public Belt Railway had little to no damage, and there are plans to move those trains.
CSX Transportation Spokeswoman Meg Scheu wrote that the company has inspected all the hazardous materials rail cars and intermodal containers at their facilities in New Orleans and haven’t found any releases. She wrote that staff continue to perform daily inspections and provide the information to DEQ, EPA and the Louisiana State Police.