(The following article by James Pilcher was posted on the Cincinnati Enquirer website on August 31.)
CINCINNATI, Ohio — The path taken by a train car filled with a hazardous material became clearer Tuesday, as many continued to ask a central question: Why was the tanker allowed to sit unattended for at least five months before it started venting a toxic plume that forced the evacuation of hundreds from their homes and businesses for two nights?
Those seeking answers included federal investigators looking into possible regulatory violations, local officials considering asking for reparations, and the companies involved.
The incident also raised criticism of railroads, which some feel lack adequate federal oversight, even as federal and industry officials claim the country’s rail system is one of the safest shipping modes.
“I’m still angry at the company, and at the railroad and at whoever is responsible for this happening,” Cincinnati Mayor Charlie Luken said.
U.S. Rep.-elect Jean Schmidt, R-Miami Township, said Tuesday that officials of the company that owned the car were unable to answer “why they didn’t have a better inventory system.”
“I go out of these meetings with more questions than answers,” said Schmidt, who said she was looking into what regulations are in place, and whether more legislation is needed. “We know what should have happened, but we don’t know why it didn’t happen the way it was supposed to.”
Train’s trail
The car is owned by Westlake Chemicals of Houston, Texas.
It was filled with styrene monomer sometime in December at the company’s plant in Sulfur, La., said vice president and chief administrative officer David Hansen.
A railroad company, which Hansen declined to name, carried the car north to Cincinnati.
The ultimate destination was Queen City Terminals, a chemical distribution center in the East End on the Ohio River near where the release began Sunday.
The tank car got to the Cincinnati area sometime in January and was transferred to the Indiana & Ohio Railway for delivery to Queen City.
“Beyond that, I can’t verify what happened,” Hansen said, declining further comment because of two lawsuits filed Tuesday in Hamilton County against the company.
Federal Railroad Administration spokesman Steve Kulm said that the two agency investigators in Cincinnati will be looking to see if anyone along the chain of ownership violated rules regarding a 48-hour time limit on transferring such material. Penalties for violating the regulation range from $275 to $32,500 per infraction.
“Where the breakdown took place is something we’ll definitely be looking at,” Kulm said.
Queen City Terminals was never notified that the shipment was on the way or was sitting nearby, ready for delivery, said Rick Rainey, a spokesman with Queen City’s owner, Kinder Morgan of Dallas, Texas: “We feel that we have no responsibility at this point.”
Officials with Rail America of Boca Raton, Fla., which owns I&O Railway, did not return calls seeking comment.
‘Such a mess’
Using side tracks as temporary storage for train cars, referred to as “rolling warehouses,” has been a common practice for decades, said industry expert John Spychalski.
“But to have that happen for months is incredible – unheard of,” said Spychalski, a professor at Penn State University.
“All the railroad does is ship the cars – it is not responsible for loading and unloading them.”
Kulm said his federal agency does not track individual hazardous shipments, nor does it require companies to give an exact accounting of the whereabouts of individual cars carrying such materials. The agency also does not require companies to indicate when a car is being stored on a side track.
Individual shipments are accounted for on each train on a document called a bill of lading, but those are not filed with any government agency, unlike flight plans that are filed with the Federal Aviation Administration.
“The situation is such a mess that it has become a major security concern to a lot of local cities,” said Fred Millar, a Washington-based hazardous materials expert. “These railroads pretty much can do whatever they want with the cars, even though we have documentation of tanks filled with ammonia sitting unattended with fresh graffiti on them, showing how easy it is to get to them,” said Millar.
Rail officials defended the $40 billion industry’s safety record, saying there have been only nine fatalities involving the shipment of hazardous material from 1994 to 2004, compared with 107 for the trucking industry.