(The following article by Jeff Montgomery was posted on the News Journal website on September 11.)
DOVER, Del. — A railroad car leak north of Dover last month has triggered public safety reviews in both the House and Senate, with one public hearing on the issue now scheduled for 7 p.m. Wednesday in Legislative Hall.
Four House Republican lawmakers plan to chair the hearing on Wednesday, with comments expected to focus on events surrounding the leak Aug. 25 at Dow Reichhold Specialty Latex.
Rep. Nancy Wagner, D-Dover North, said in a meeting notice that she wanted to learn “if anything unanticipated occurred” after the leak and if lawmakers can take steps to help crews who arrive first at emergency scenes.
Rep. Joe Booth, R-Georgetown, Rep. Donna Stone, R-Dover South, and Rep. Pam Thornburgh, R-Dover West, also are scheduled to attend the hearing.
Dozens sought aid at a local emergency room and thousands noticed odors after styrene, used to make plastics, began leaking from a railroad car at Dow Reichhold. Plant workers were aware of problems in the rail car weeks before it began leaking, company officials said.
State regulators noted that pollution levels never reached hazardous levels, but confirmed that they are investigating the company’s compliance with pollution and accident-prevention regulations.
Shortly after the leak was discovered state officials ordered the first wide-area use of an automated system that delivered recorded warnings to thousands of telephones within five miles of the plant.
In the recording, officials advised residents to stay indoors — a warning rescinded the next day. Before the all-clear was given nearly 26 hours, later businesses were told to close and all roads near the plant – including U.S. 13 – were closed despite assurances that residents faced little real threat.
“I think the message could have been handled a lot more clearly,” said Sen. John C. Still III, R-Dover North, who requested a staff-level review of the accident.
Some residents termed the messages sketchy and said they arrived late and in some cases unevenly across neighborhoods. The take-shelter notice eventually was cut back to an evacuation order within 1,500 feet of the rail car.
Still described the probe as in the “early stages,” but said that the leak should prompt officials to review risks at a small rail car switching and storage siding in south Dover, near existing and planned new housing developments.
Booth said rail safety concerns extend beyond the Dover incident. Rail carloads of anhydrous ammonia are sometimes seen on tracks in southern Delaware, where the chemical is used as a refrigerant by food processing and poultry industries.
Chlorine and ammonia make up about 80 percent of the hazardous cargos shipped by rail in Delaware each year. Both could send poisonous clouds miles downwind in the event of an accidental or intentional release or spill. Along some parts of Delaware’s rail network a major release could expose thousands of people to potentially fatal chemical concentrations.