(The following article by Scott Vanhorne was posted on the San Bernardino County Sun website on April 5.)
SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. — Rail cars filled with toxic, radioactive, corrosive and explosive substances rumble by homes, schools and businesses every day with no fanfare and usually without incident.
“For the volume that we handle, the rail industry is the safest way to transport anything that is considered hazardous,’ Union Pacific spokesman Mark Davis said.
About 800,000 shipments of hazardous materials travel through the nation daily via ships, trucks, airplanes, trains and pipelines. The list ranges from seemingly benign perfume products to compressed liquid chlorine and sulfuric acid.
Railroads carry less than 1 percent of all dangerous substances transported but account for about 2 percent of dangerous substance spills, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report.
About three quarters of rail car spills are small less than 70 gallons but in the past three years, large chemical releases from trains have killed 10 people and injured hundreds, prompting calls for railroads to reroute hazardous substances around densely populated areas.
District of Columbia officials are considering such a move because of the likelihood of a terrorist attack in the nation’s capital.
“For us to bring these really dangerous cargos through high-threat target areas … amounts to pre-positioning these cargos for the convenience of the terrorists,’ said Fred Millar, a homeland security consultant for the D.C. Council.
The most recent deadly railroad spill was in January. A train carrying tankers loaded with chlorine and sodium hydroxide collided with another locomotive in Graniteville, S.C. Nine people died and about 529 people sought medical care for chlorine gas exposure.
Millar said there have been about 17 major rail car spills in the nation in recent years, but weather conditions and other factors kept them from turning deadly.
“We’ve just been lucky,’ he said.
Railroad companies are not required to notify the public or even emergency officials about what type of cargo hazardous or not travels on their lines, said George Sorvalis, an outreach associate for the Working Group on the Community Right-to-Know in Washington, D.C.
Rialto Fire Chief Steve Wells said the information, even if it were available, would do firefighters little good.
“You’d have to have an army of people to stay current on what’s coming through,’ he said. “I think it wouldn’t be almost overwhelming, it would be overwhelming.’
Victorville Fire Department Division Chief Keith Petersen said railroad officials have responded quickly to minor spills in the city and have assisted with firefighter training as well.
Petersen questioned whether having a list of when and where chemicals are transported on rail cars would be logical.
“I would think, especially nowadays, having that type of list would be frowned on by Homeland Security,’ he said.
Meanwhile, railroad companies have modified rail cars to prevent spills, including moving valves from the bottoms of cars, where they could be ripped off in a crash, to the tops.
The efforts have apparently paid off, according to statistics from the Federal Railroad Administration.
Accidents involving trains carrying hazardous substances increased from 236 in 1999 to 779 in 2004, but spills from rail cars decreased during the same period from 90 to 47.
Dangerous transported chemicals
Trains traveling through the region carry a wide variety of materials and substances. Many are safe but a handful can cause health problems or even kill.
The following are some of the most dangerous chemicals transported by the Union Pacific Railroad, according to Mark Davis, a spokesman with the rail company. In the case of Monday night’s derailment, the train transported liquid chlorine, liquid propane and fuel additives.
Liquid chlorine is toxic and can be deadly when it turns into gas. It was used as a weapon during World War I. It is most often used for bleaching and disinfecting. The liquid changes to gas form when exposed to the air.
In its gas form, it is dense, which means it generally stays close to the ground. It is a yellow-green color. Chlorine becomes lethal at 30 parts per million.
In January, two freight trains collided in South Carolina. Nine people died, most succumbing to the gas. More than 500 people sought medical treatment because of their reactions to the gas.
Sulfuric acid , when mixed with water, can be explosive. It is toxic.
Anhydrous ammonia is a liquid typically used for disinfecting. It is toxic.
Liquid propane is a flammable, potentially explosive chemical. Like many chemicals usually found in gas form, it is kept as a liquid for transportation purposes.
Paint thinner , fuel additives and antifreeze are all toxic. Most likely, when released in a spill, they will cause breathing problems for those in close proximity.