MARCH 6, 2015
GALENA, ILLINOIS (AP)
The rail cars that split open and burst into flames during a
western Illinois oil train derailment this week had been retrofitted with
protective shields to meet a higher safety standard than federal law requires,
according to railroad officials.
The fire continued to burn Friday, a day after the
derailment in a rural area south of the city of Galena. No injuries were
reported, but the accident was the latest in a series of failures for the safer
tank-car model that has led some people calling for even tougher requirements.
"It certainly begs that question when ... those
standards failed to prevent leakage and explosions that threaten human safety
and environmental contamination," said Steve Barg, director of the Jo Daviess
Conservation Foundation, which owns a nature preserve several hundred yards
from the derailment site.
BNSF Railway said the train's tank cars were a newer model
known as the 1232. It was designed during safety upgrades voluntarily adopted
by the industry four years ago in hopes of keeping cars from rupturing during
derailments.
But 1232 standard cars have split open in three other
accidents in the past year, including one in West Virginia last month. That
train was carrying 3 million gallons of North Dakota crude when it derailed,
shooting fireballs into the sky, leaking oil into a waterway and burning down a
house. The home's owner was treated for smoke inhalation, but no one else was
injured.
In Thursday's accident in Illinois, 21 of the train's 105 cars
derailed in an area where the Galena River meets the Mississippi. BNSF Railway
said a resulting fire spread to five rail cars. Firefighters could only access
the derailment site by a bike path, said Galena Assistant Fire Chief Bob
Conley.
Emergency personnel were still working to contain the blaze
Friday but described the area as "stable." The Federal Railroad
Administration was investigating.
The train had 103 cars loaded with crude oil from the
Northern Plains' Bakken region, along with two buffer cars loaded with sand,
according to company spokesman Andy Williams. The cause of the derailment
hasn't been determined.
The accident occurred 3 miles south of Galena in a wooded,
hilly area popular with tourists. The area is alongside part of the Upper
Mississippi River Wildlife and Fish Refuge, but there was no indication of any
oil contamination there so far, said U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service spokeswoman
Georgia Parhan.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said it was
monitoring the air, taking water samples and setting up booms to keep leaking
oil from reaching nearby waterways.
As of June, BNSF was hauling 32 Bakken oil trains per week
through the surrounding Jo Daviess County, according to information disclosed
to Illinois emergency officials.
Recent derailments have increased public concern about the
safety of shipping crude by train. The Association of American Railroads says
oil shipments by rail jumped from 9,500 carloads in 2008, to 500,000 in 2014,
driven by the boom in the Bakken oil patch of North Dakota and Montana.
Pipeline limitations in the region force 70 percent of the crude to move by
rail.
Since 2006, the U.S. and Canada have seen at least 22
oil-train accidents involving a fire, derailment or significant amount of fuel
spilled, according to an Associated Press examination of federal accident
records.
The wrecks have intensified pressure on President Barack
Obama's administration to approve tougher standards for railroads and tank
cars, despite industry complaints that it could cost billions and slow freight
deliveries.
Oil industry officials had been opposed to further upgrading
the 1232 cars because of costs. But late last year they changed their position
and joined with the railway industry to support some upgrades, although they
asked for time to make the improvements.
U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin released a statement Friday calling on
the White House to quickly finalize its rule to strengthen standards, saying
the increasing number of train derailments nationwide was unacceptable.
"There is mounting evidence that stricter standards are
needed in the handling of Bakken crude, which appears to be particularly
volatile," the Illinois Democrat said. "The safety of our communities
depends on it."