(Source: Philadelphia Inquirer, August 2, 2015)
PHILADELPHIA — A BNSF train pulled out of a terminal in North Dakota’s Bakken Shale region last month, hauling 106 tank cars filled with crude oil on a westward journey to a refinery near Ferndale, Wash.
It didn’t get far. Just 30 miles into its thousand-mile-plus trek to the Pacific Coast, the train derailed July 16 on a straightaway outside Culbertson, Mont. Twenty-two tank cars left the rails. Five were breached, BNSF says, spilling 35,000 gallons of Bakken crude. In the pile-up, a live power line was knocked down.
Then something curious happened, different from 10 other oil-train crashes since 2013: The oil did not ignite.
The oil spilled in the latest accident had been conditioned to reduce its volatility to comply with a North Dakota order that went into effect in April. Some are suggesting that the reduction in vapor pressure may have reduced the chance of a fire.
Full story: Philadelphia Inquirer