(The following story by Gordon Dickson appeared on the Fort Worth Star-Telegram website on April 29, 2010.)
FORT WORTH, Texas — Railroads continue to haul chlorine, ammonia and other hazardous materials through major metropolitan areas such as Fort Worth and Dallas despite years of efforts to reduce shipments in populated areas where an accident or terrorist attack could kill thousands.
And one federal rule designed to prevent terrorism actually increases the potential of exposure in cities, critics say. The rule requires railroads to keep chlorine-filled rail cars in yards where employees are always on duty, if possible. But those places tend to be in populated areas rather than in rural areas where they may go unattended.
Information about the precise number of rail cars carrying toxic inhalants through Tarrant County — and which railroad tracks they use — is kept confidential under federal law. But one Fort Worth emergency response official who has been briefed on historical railroad shipping trends said that about 1,300 chlorine-filled cars go through Union Pacific Railroad’s Davidson Yard in west Fort Worth in a typical year.
Although local officials aren’t told ahead of time when a train with chlorine cars is coming through town, they are trained to cooperate with railroads in the event of an emergency, said Keith Wells, Fort Worth senior emergency management officer.
“We know where to call to get instant information about what’s there,” he said.
But critics say several changes in federal law since 2004, while perhaps meant to improve safety, may have actually increased the risk of a tragedy.
Residents at risk
Emergency responders who would be responsible for evacuating or rescuing residents near a chlorine spill don’t have access to enough information about shipping routes and aren’t properly prepared to deal with a disaster, said Fred Millar, a Virginia-based rail security consultant.
Instead, only the railroads themselves and a small number of credentialed federal officials are allowed to review the data, he said.
“Are we going to let corporations puts the citizens at major risk? That’s what’s happening in your city,” said Millar, who argues that shipping routes should be publicized and scrutinized by watchdog groups to ensure the public welfare is protected.
Millar fought for a ban on hazardous shipments in the District of Columbia that was approved several years ago, but it was overturned in court.
Although no incidents involving a rail shipment of chlorine, ammonia or a similar toxic inhalant have occurred in North Texas recently, the consequences of one could be severe.
A cloud of chlorine gas, for example, could kill up to 17,500 people and injure 100,000 others within several miles, according to a Homeland Security report. Heavily used freight lines run through the heart of Fort Worth, Arlington, Keller, Dallas, Saginaw and many other cities in the region.
Railroads want help
Railroads such as Omaha, Neb.-based Union Pacific and Fort Worth-based BNSF Railway are quick to tout their safety records. The industry, which is required by federal common-carrier law to ship chemicals such as chlorine, transported 72,000 tank cars of toxic inhalants in 2008.
That number is expected to increase dramatically in the next few years if the economy rebounds and rail freight shipments as a whole return to pre-recession levels.
Railroads, which don’t actually own most of the tanker cars they transport, have supported efforts to require shippers to use the safest possible rolling stock. Recently adopted federal rules call for tanker cars to be built with a more puncture-resistant shell.
Accidents are very rare. In 2004, three people were killed by chlorine vapors in Macdona, near San Antonio. And in 2005, nine people were killed and 50 injured in a train accident at Graniteville, S.C.
The railroads acknowledge the risk of carrying substances such as chlorine and have asked the federal government — with no luck — to limit their liability in the event that an accident or terrorist attack involving inhalants causes mass casualties.
Fort Worth, Dallas and Kansas City, Mo., are among the “high-threat urban areas,” or cities where the potential for a major disaster is greatest, Union Pacific argued in a petition to the Surface Transportation Board. Those cities are higher threats because they include railroad hubs within highly populated areas.
In the petition, Union Pacific asked to be relieved of its responsibility under federal common-carrier law to ship chlorine from a Utah manufacturer, U.S. Magnesium, to various points more than 1,400 miles to the east.
The long trips were “unnecessary risks” because manufacturers in Texas, Louisiana and other states could provide the chlorine to customers, Union Pacific argued.
The request was denied. Federal law requires the railroads to make such shipments as long as the supplier meets safety requirements.
In 2007, Congress required railroads to map out hazardous shipping routes around major U.S. cities, wherever possible. But in many cities, such as Fort Worth, a bypass simply isn’t available, one Union Pacific official said.
Dallas-Fort Worth gets more chlorine gas shipments than anywhere else in the U.S., one study showed.
“It’s not like the interstate highway system. We don’t have a lot of routes,” said Robert Grimaila, Union Pacific vice president for safety, security and environment. “We have branch lines, but a branch line is not a main line. We don’t have a lot of options.”