(The following story by Clif LeBlanc appeared on The State website on January 22.)
COLUMBIA, S.C. — Until the Graniteville train wreck earlier this month, last summer’s 60-ton chlorine leak near San Antonio was likely the nation’s largest of its kind, officials there said.
The June 28 collision killed three people and sent 53 to hospitals; chlorine withered vegetation in the 23-acre rural Texas site.
The 60-ton leak in Graniteville was deadlier because it was inside town limits and near a textile plant — nine died, 243 were hurt and more than 5,000 people evacuated.
How the spill was handled in the June 28 wreck in Bexar County, Texas, might be an indicator of what’s ahead in Graniteville, officials say.
Almost seven months later, a few residents continue to struggle with physical ailments, said Bexar County Fire Marshal Carl Mixon.
Decimated vegetation around the site has recuperated, he said.
“We were extraordinarily lucky about where it happened,” Mixon said.
Chlorine readings around the wreck were far stronger than in Graniteville, according to authorities. This could explain why the vegetation loss in Texas was larger.
About 20 people lived within a radius of three-fourths of a mile, though the plume sickened people as far away as 10 miles.
The collision between Union Pacific and Burlington Northern Santa Fe trains happened about 5 a.m., during a rail-switching operation, according to news accounts.
The Graniteville wreck, which happened at 2:40 a.m. Jan. 6, is believed to have occurred when a switching mechanism to a rail spur was not reset to allow another train to pass, federal officials have said. The Norfolk Southern train carrying three tankers of pressurized liquid chlorine then slammed into a parked Norfolk Southern train near Avondale Mills.
Bexar (pronounced Bear) County officials are guarded about discussing details of the Texas incident until the final National Transportation Safety Board report is released, said Yvonne Escamilla, spokeswoman for the county’s emergency management office.
There are some similarities, but also some differences, between the two incidents — and perhaps some lessons that might apply in Graniteville:
o Rescuers responded too quickly before learning what they were up against.
Four Texas firefighters and two sheriff’s deputies drove into the cloud thinking they were answering a fire alarm. None died.
Graniteville Fire Chief Phil Napier said seven volunteer firefighters did the same thing here because they were headed to the fire station to plan their response to what they knew only to be a possible chemical spill. The station is within 150 yards of the collision.
o Syphoning chlorine from the damaged tanker took much longer than expected. Summer heat and rain made the challenge worse.
“We thought we were going to get rid of it in just a couple of days,” Texas fire marshal Mixon said, “but it took seven days.”
About 100 rescuers also had to evacuate briefly because the deadly gas expanded faster than their ability to syphon it, Mixon said. “I would say we lost a good day (of accumulated hours).”
It took 11 days to syphon the Graniteville tanker, just short of the EPA’s worse-case scenario, said Kevin Misenheimer, the agency’s on-scene coordinator in Graniteville who consulted with Texas EPA officials.
Lessons from the San Antonio wreck provided the EPA in Graniteville a better sense of how long draining the tank would take, Misenheimer said.