(The following story by Jill Schramm appeared on the Minot Daily News website on January 18, 2009.)
MINOT, N.D. — Each year about 1.7 million carloads of hazardous materials travel by rail across the United States.
Only a small portion 100,000 carloads or 0.3 percent of total shipments are inhalation hazards such as anhydrous ammonia and chlorine that pose the greatest risk in a rail accident.
Railroads transported about 50,000 carloads of anhydrous ammonia in 2007, a year which saw 99.99 percent of rail hazmat shipments arrive safely at their destinations. Rail hazmat accident rates are down 88 percent since 1980 and 39 percent since 1990, according to the Association of American Railroads.
“Railroads look at safety continually,” said Tom White, spokesman for AAR. “2007 had the lowest train accident rate in history. 2008, so far, the accident rate is down from 2007 so the railroad industry takes safety very, very seriously. We always say it’s the number one priority, and it really is because if we can’t operate safely, we can’t operate efficiently. Railroads put a great deal of effort and research and resources into making sure that things move safely. When we are dealing with hazardous materials, railroads are the only mode of transportation really that’s required under a federal law to move them.”
AAR believes the best form of risk reduction is to haul fewer carloads of dangerous materials, which means demand for certain chemicals needs to decrease. Some cities are switching from use of chlorine in water purification to other chemicals, and some farmers are going back to using urea, a dry form of nitrogen fertilizer, to replace anhydrous ammonia.
But since the chemicals still move on the rails, railroads and the federal government have sought to make the transportation as safe as possible.
Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., who serves on the Senate Commerce Committee, said a rail safety law that took effect last year contains substantial new requirements for safety. The bill covers a number of areas from rail employee work fatigue to penalties for violations of safety regulations.
“I think the passage of the legislation was necessary,” Dorgan said. “We will keep monitoring rail safety and see what additional approaches might be necessary.”
The nation’s train accident rate had improved from 1980 to 1997 before leveling off. On average, about 446 people were injured and 14 people killed each year from 1996 to 2005 in rail accidents, excluding highway-railroad grade crossing and trespassing accidents. But it’s been the large, serious accidents that have grabbed attention.
A January 2002 derailment in Minot led to the release of about 200,000 gallons of anhydrous ammonia, 1,442 injuries and one death. A train collision in Macdona, Texas, in 2004 resulted in a chlorine leak that killed three. In 2005, a train collision in Graniteville, S.C., resulted in release of chlorine and the evacuation of 5,400 people, 292 injuries and nine deaths.
Alarmed, the Federal Railroad Administration responded in 2005 by initiating a three-year National Rail Safety Plan.
The plan demonstrated vehicle-mounted imaging technology to detect cracks in rail joints and increased track inspection vehicles from one to three, allowing the FRA to inspect nearly 100,000 miles of the nation’s 219,000 miles of track each year.
The incidents in Minot, along with 2004 derailments in California and Mississippi, led Congress to have the FRA write new rules for track safety.
FRA issued additional regulations on rail joint inspection in October 2006, particularly aimed at continuous welded rail that makes up 99,000 to 120,000 miles of the country’s rail system. FRA reported that about 20 accidents were occurring a year on continuous welded tracks, and these accidents usually were serious.
The new regulations require railroads to inspect rail joints up to four times a year. More of these inspections must be conducted by inspectors on foot rather than in vehicles. Railroads must have detailed, written procedures for inspections.
The FRA also issued a new routing rule last summer that requires railroads to consider 27 factors in determining the best route for hauling hazardous materials. Railroads must re-develop route plans by September 2009.
Railroads always have considered various factors in routing, White said. The difficulty in rerouting is that it typically means longer routes that subject cars to more handling in rail yards and more transfer from one train to another, all of which increase the risk of accident, he said.
In another safety measure, the U.S. Department of Transportation, in consultation with the FRA, issued standards Tuesday for railroad tank cars that handle inhalation hazards. The department sought to establish final standards before the Bush administration left office but ended up issuing an interim rule, which puts standards in place while research continues that could lead to further changes.
Older cars like some of those involved in the incident in Minot were part of the impetus for new tank car rules.
Tanks built before 1989 were constructed of non-normalized steel, which is more vulnerable to ruptures. The new rules allow a 20-year grandfathering period for all tanks to be in compliance, although companies are moving quickly to eliminate the pre-1989 cars, according to the department.
In addition to thicker inner shells and outer jackets, cars must be equipped with top fitting protection and tank nozzle reinforcement to survive a rollover with a 9 mph velocity. The standard would prevent release if protective housing, valves and nozzles are sheared off in an accident.
The rules restrict speeds to 50 mph for cars carrying inhalation hazards.
The federal standards are tougher in some respects than new tank standards that the AAR came out with last May. Although AAR knew a federal rule was coming, White noted, “This is something that could be done right here and now to improve the safety of the tank cars. That was why we went ahead with these standards.”
The Fertilizer Institute, a trade organization, opposed the AAR standards because of lack of communication with the institute and its shipping partners during the development. The institute stated that the historically high safety record of anhydrous ammonia transport has been the result of cooperation, and that cooperation needs to continue.
Institute members have been accelerating the rate of retirement of pre-1989 tank cars and had recommended to the Department of Transportation that all be retired by 2010. The final rule only requires that the pre-1989 cars be retired as a priority.
In addition to physical improvements in the transportation system, obtaining better hazmat information can improve safety. Information about cargo is important to emergency responders.
“We do work more closely with the railroads than we had in the past,” said Minot Fire Chief C.J. Craven.
Canadian Pacific and Burlington Northern Santa Fe provide the department with information about the types of cargo they haul, and rail cars have placards indicating content. If an accident should occur, responders also would have access to train documents indicating car placement and contents.