(The following article by S. Heather Duncan was posted on the Macon Telegraph website on January 18.)
MACON, Ga. — One year after a Norfolk Southern train from Macon killed nine people in South Carolina with a chlorine spill, railroads say they have made the transportation of hazardous materials safer.
But union and watchdog groups disagree, saying that the public remains at risk from potential spills because of punishing railroad work schedules, high train speeds and “dark territory” that has no signals.
“Our rail system is so vulnerable right now it’s unbelievable,” said David Karnas, an attorney who handles chemical exposure cases. “There’s not enough surveillance, not enough security and little to no supervision.”
The deadly train that drew the nation’s attention to hazardous chemicals rumbling through American towns crashed Jan. 6, 2005, in Graniteville, S.C., located northwest of Augusta near Interstate 20. The train started in Macon, where its brakes were inspected, then crews switched in Augusta before the train traveled on with a cargo that included chlorine and sodium hydroxide.
But it never reached its destination. A misaligned switch caused it to collide with an engine on a side track, according to the final report issued last month by the National Transportation Safety Board. More than 5,000 residents within a one-mile radius were evacuated, and more than 500 were treated after inhaling chlorine fumes.
Macon officials say Norfolk Southern provides information and training to prepare emergency responders for such accidents, and Macon’s hazardous materials team has responded successfully to small spills over the years.
“What happened (in Graniteville) I could never see happening here,” said Johnny Wingers, director of the Macon-Bibb County Emergency Management Agency. He emphasized that trains usually travel more slowly through Macon than the 47 mph that the Graniteville train was moving.
Nevertheless, the NTSB found that the Graniteville accident showed “even the strongest tank cars in service can be punctured in accidents involving trains operating at moderate speeds.”
The Federal Railroad Administration has taken steps to reduce chemical risks by refining federal railroad inspections and researching the role of fatigue in accidents, among other efforts.
After a second misaligned switch caused a fatal accident in September, the agency also issued an emergency order to reduce such risks in dark territory, where there are no signals to tell engineers what is happening on the tracks ahead.
But union officials and watchdog groups contend that nothing meaningful has changed.
“I don’t realistically think the railroads have done anything to correct the issues of Graniteville,” said John Tolman, chief of staff and legislative and political director for the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen.
Steve Brittle, who runs a public education Web site called chemicalspill.org, described trains carrying hazardous materials as “rolling weapons of mass destruction,” with chlorine being the most dangerous cargo.
“I’d be far more frightened of a 90-ton rail car of chlorine than radioactive waste,” Brittle said.
Railroads carry two-thirds of the chlorine transported in America, according to the Association of American Railroads.
Wingers estimated that more than 400 rail cars containing hazardous materials pass through Macon daily, with chlorine, sulfuric acid and hydrochloric acid among the chemical cargoes he observes most frequently.
Norfolk Southern spokeswoman Susan Terpay emphasized that railroads are not legally allowed to refuse legitimate freight, including hazardous chemicals.
MACON’S RISK
Norfolk Southern dominates Macon’s rail traffic and operates a switch yard east of Seventh Street. Heavily used tracks between busy Riverside Drive and the Ocmulgee River probably pose the highest risk, Wingers said.
Norfolk Southern had two minor accidents in Macon last year involving trains carrying hazardous materials, according to the Federal Railroad Administration. Both happened in the switch yard.
One, an October derailment, involved damage to a tank car carrying anhydrous ammonia. Capt. Donny Mercer, who directs the hazardous materials response team for the Macon-Bibb County Fire Department, said his team stood by while an environmental contractor dealt with it. His group has responded to other small spills, mostly leaks of chlorine or anhydrous ammonia in the train yard, he said.
In Bibb County, railroad tracks pass a stone’s throw from Freedom Park in Payne City, a playground and homes in south Macon’s Lynmore Estates, and residential homes off Vineville Avenue and Rivoli Drive, among other neighborhoods. Many schools in Macon are within a mile of railroad tracks.
Karnas, who is representing Graniteville residents harmed in last year’s accident, said that when it comes to hazardous releases, “I think anybody within five miles of a rail accident is at a high risk.”
As an example, he pointed to an Arkansas accident last year in which a punctured rail car of highly flammable propylene gas caused an enormous fireball to flash between it and a home across a valley, incinerating everything in between.
Most of the people who died in the Graniteville accident were workers at a nearby textile mill. Many Macon industrial facilities are adjacent to railroad tracks, including General Chemical, Bilco Manufacturing and the Graphic Packaging paper mill.
Terpay, the Norfolk Southern spokeswoman, would not release information on the volume of hazardous materials that passes through Macon, but throughout the United States, the company moved 366,000 carloads of chemicals, petroleum products and other hazardous materials in 2004.
State and federal officials say railroad companies are not required to notify local officials about hazardous shipments traveling through. Although trucks must have permits to carry certain hazardous materials, railroads don’t, said Capt. Bruce Bugg with the Georgia Department of Public Safety’s motor carrier compliance division.
Bugg said Georgia legislators have occasionally voiced interest in requiring permits or inspections, but there is no federal funding for it.
Norfolk Southern participates in a rail freight software program, available for about three years to Macon’s emergency responders, that uses global positioning to identify train location and cargo, Terpay said.
Mercer said his department does not use the software regularly but keeps it as a resource in case of an accident.
Mercer said Norfolk Southern provides training for Macon’s emergency responders, usually twice a year. Its whistle-stop train for hazardous materials training has stopped in Forsyth, and the company sent Mercer to the Norfolk Southern training complex in Colorado last year to study chemical tank cars.
Although some cities, such as Washington, D.C., and Chicago, are trying to require that hazardous shipments be detoured around large population centers – a move that railroads oppose – the Association of American Railroads says 99 percent of shipments arrive safely. Terpay says highway chemical shipments are much less safe.
Wingers agreed, saying that the interstates that pass through Macon pose a greater risk.
MAKING IMPROVEMENTS
The NTSB’s Graniteville report made a series of recommendations about train safety to the Federal Railroad Administration. Among them: slowing down trains in dark territory and population centers, and requiring dangerous chemicals to be carried farther back on trains.
The Federal Railroad Administration has not yet responded to the recommendations.
However, Steve Kulm, a spokesman for the Federal Railroad Administration, said that slowing trains is not the answer. “The safest train travels at a constant speed,” he said, noting that engineers must synchronize breaking and accelerating different portions of a long train.
Local communities cannot legally require trains to slow down, Kulm said.
Tolman, the railroad union’s chief of staff, said reducing train speeds would help, although the best-made chemical cars can rupture at only 15 to 18 mph. The cars are supplied by chemical companies, not the railroad.
Last year, the NTSB recommended that the Federal Railroad Administration toughen chemical tank car standards. The agency has not yet done so, although it is evaluating an explosive-resistant coating to prevent tank car punctures, then reseal them.
Railroads are also studying sensing equipment for dark territory, and Norfolk Southern is testing a new system of on-board computers tied to train braking systems.
“There’s dark territory all through Georgia,” said Michael Warshauer, an Atlanta attorney who specializes in railroad cases. “More track is dark than not.”
According to the NTSB, worker fatigue also contributed to the Graniteville accident. Tolman said although federal rules forbid engineers and conductors from working shifts longer than 12 hours, they are often left “in limbo” for hours after their shift ends, waiting for a relief crew to pick them up. And they can be called back to work in less than 12 hours.
Only two workers run each train, and many railroads want to go to one-man trains, leaving a tired engineer with no backup, Tolman said.
The Graniteville train crew that left the switch misaligned had worked shifts longer than 12 hours for a third of the working days the previous month – and on the day of their fatal mistake, the NTSB found.
Norfolk Southern fired the men responsible for the misaligned switch because they failed to follow company operating procedures that would have prevented the accident, Terpay said.
“Even prior to the Graniteville incident, Norfolk Southern operating rules, safety procedures and employee training made the possibility of such an accident remote – yet an accident still occurred,” Terpay wrote.