April 28, 2015
The derailment of the Conrail train sent four aging tank
cars into Mantua Creek. One car ruptured, spilling 20,000 gallons of
vinyl chloride into the creek and its fumes into the air.
In response to the federal report, legislation is in the
works in Washington and Trenton.
New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez and Congressman Donald Norcross
are rolling out the “Toxics by Rail Accountability and Community
Knowledge” — or TRACK — act to hopefully improve rail safety as it pertains to
the transportation of hazardous materials.
The bill would heavily penalize railroads that violate
safety standards and require up to date and accurate information on what is
being transported by rail to assist first responders in the event of an
accident. Part of the bill would improve safety procedures and qualifications
for moveable bridge crossings.
Meanwhile in Trenton, several members of the Assembly have
rolled out a state bill they believe will tighten safety standards in New
Jersey for the rail transportation of hazardous materials. The measure is
co-sponsored by New Jersey Assembly members Gordon Johnson, Tim Eustace,
Marlene Caride, Elizabeth Muoio, Valerie Vainieri Huttle and Joseph Lagana.
The bill, (A-4283) requires operators of trains carrying a
hazardous cargo to submit a discharge response, cleanup and contingency plan to
the state Department of Environmental Protection.
“We want a clear plan in place, and this information put out
to all law enforcement agencies throughout the state, so that we all know how
to respond to an incident like this,” Assemblyman Gordon Johnson said. “We
want coming out of this bill, a plan where the railroad and the Attorney
General and the OEM, the Officer of Emergency Management, to get together and
have a plan in place in case there is a derailment or an accident on the rail
cars, to include educating first responders about how to respond to this
and also having the resources in place to have a proper first response to it.”
One provision of the legislation requires operators of high
hazard trains to submit a discharge response, cleanup and contingency plan to
the state Department of Environmental Protection.
Another co-sponsor, Assemblyman Tim Eustace, said lawmakers
are trying to put safety measures in place to prevent another incident like the
Paulsboro derailment.
“There were missteps, and we are hoping that we are
addressing them. We are just trying to make sure that things like this don’t
happen in the future,” he said.
Eustace said just as each municipality is required to have a
emergency response on file, the companies that operate trains in New Jersey
neighborhoods should have the same sort of emergency response and contingency
plans on file with the state.
The bill has been referred to the Assembly Transportation
and Independent Authorities Committee.
Source: nj1015.com
//-----------------------//
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — The National Transportation Safety
Board has released its final report on systemic flaws leading up to a 2012
train derailment that leaked a dangerous gas in southern New Jersey.
The report issued Tuesday was approved by the NTSB last
month, and its key findings were made public at that time.
The release gives full details of the Nov. 30, 2012 accident
in Paulsboro — in which seven cars derailed, with some falling from a bridge
into a creek — and its aftermath. Vinyl chloride, a gas used in industrial
processes that has been linked to respiratory problems, dizziness and death —
was released into the air.
The safety board faults Conrail for continuing to open and
close a swinging bridge where the accident occurred, despite a consultant’s
recommendation to keep it closed. The report said a conductor decided to go
over the bridge anyway despite not having adequate training to make such a
call. It also found problems with the way Conrail and local officials handled the
emergency response.
Even before the final report was made public, U.S. Sen.
Robert Menendez began calling for tougher penalties for railroads found to
violate safety standards.
Menendez said his proposal was a reaction to the
NTSB’s findings.
Last month, Conrail said it was concerned with safety and
was taking the recommendations seriously.
Local officials said they are already working on emergency
response protocols.
Several people are suing over the spill. A judge this month
declined to grant them class-action status.
////////////////////////---------------------------------//
CAMDEN – Paulsboro residents, including several business
owners, do not meet requirements to file a class-action lawsuit against Conrail
over a 2012 train derailment in their town, according to a federal judge.
The judge Wednesday denied residents’ request for “class
certification.”
The plaintiffs claim the train wreck aftermath caused
businesses to lose income and resulted in economic losses for 680 residents of
the Gloucester County town.
A breached rail car released a cloud of toxic vinyl chloride
that rolled through the borough. The chemical spill forced the evacuation of
hundreds of Paulsboro residents, who were displaced for weeks.
While the plaintiffs indicated about 680 Paulsboro residents
were impacted by derailment-related evacuations, 486 residents settled with
Conrail by accepting hundreds — and in some cases thousands — of dollars in
exchange for a promise not to sue the railroad company. Another 45 residents
have separate individual lawsuits related to the derailment.
Those who settled with Conrail and those with separate
lawsuits — more than 531 residents in total — could not be part of the
requested class, U.S. District Court Judge Robert B. Kugler ruled.
“Plaintiffs have not demonstrated how many, if any, of the
remaining evacuees have unreimbursed, nonmedical expenses,” he said.
In addition, the judge said the plaintiffs could not show
how business losses would be measured.
“They have not proposed how to determine whether each of
these businesses actually had physical operations in the evacuations or
shelter-in-place zones, or of these, which ones actually suffered income
losses,” Kugler wrote.
While the judge acknowledged Don’s Barbershop, owned by
Donald Wilson, relies on a “physical presence to generate revenue, it’s not so
clear that all 381 businesses with mailing addresses in the shelter-in-place
zones have a similar business model.”
Finally, Kugler pointed out Wilson and another plaintiff,
Tracy Lee, already received reimbursements from Conrail at the railroad company’s
post-derailment assistance center in Paulsboro, where impacted residents could
obtain reimbursements and gift cards.
Wilson acknowledges receiving $4,000. Lee received more than
$2,000, according to court papers.
“We believe Judge Kugler’s opinion speaks for itself,”
Conrail said in a statement.
//------------------------//
This
week’s MMWR includes a report on the experience of volunteer firefighters,
police and other personnel who responded to a November 2012
train derailment in Paulsboro, NJ. The Contrail train twisted off a movable
bridge and three tank cars containing vinyl chloride landed in Mantua Creek.
About 20,000 gallons of vinyl chloride were released, resulting in a noxious
vapor cloud.
Among those responding to the early morning incident were
individuals with the Paulsboro Fire Department, and HAZMAT teams from the PBF Energy’s Paulsboro Refinery,
Gloucester County, and Conrail. It wasn’t long before residents and responders
complained of respiratory problems, headaches and other problems. Ultimately,
more than 250 individuals visited local emergency rooms because of symptoms
following the incident.
The MMWR article provides the results of a survey, conducted
by the New Jersey Department of Health, the CDC’s National Institute for
Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and the Agency for Toxic Substances and
Disease Registry, of 93 emergency responders to the Paulsboro incident. One
topic of particular interest was identifying symptoms of acute exposure to
vinyl chloride, which is already known as a human carcinogen. Their survey
findings include:
48% of respondents reported spending >12 hours at the
site, and only 22% reported using respiratory protection during their response
activities
26% reported experiencing headaches, 26% reported
experiencing upper respiratory symptoms, and 22% reported experiencing lower
respiratory symptoms
Among the 72 respondents who reported they did not wear
respiratory protection on initial arrival at the scene:
49% said they didn’t’ think it was required for their work
24% said none was available
17% said they were not advised to wear respiratory
protection
17% said they did not think they needed it
What the MMWR piece doesn’t describe are the circumstances
that might illuminate why better safety precautions were not taken. As Debra
Coyle McFadden, assistant director of the New
Jersey Work Environment Council told me:
“It is imperative that every step is taken to protect and
train emergency responders. When the exposure levels are unknown, the leadership
onsite should proceed to instruct emergency responders to protect themselves as
if the level is above established occupational exposure limits until it is
proven otherwise.”
In the Paulsboro incident, that didn’t happen. The National
Transportation Safety Board’s (NTSB) investigation
describes the troubling nature of the emergency response. For example:
There was confusion about the contents of some of the railcars.
About 25 minutes after the derailment, the fire chief radioed: “We are getting
some information that a couple of these tanks have bad stuff, we just can’t get
the placards.”
The trainmaster reviewed the shipping manifest [a.k.a.,
train consist] with the deputy fire chief, but then the trainmaster departed
with the document. It was the only available copy. “The trainmaster retained
possession of the consist for almost 3.5 hours, leaving emergency responders
with no means of referencing the document for response planning.”
“The incident commander and other first responders remained
within about 50 yards of an active vinyl chloride release. …About 6 hours into
the incident, the fire chief had yet to relocate the ICP [incident command
post] to a safe location and failed to establish PPE requirements for the
accident scene.”
NTS Board Member Robert Sumwalt noted:
“This new location was only about 1/4 mile from the ruptured
tank car—a distance that still posed unacceptable risk because the responders
were not wearing protective clothing and equipment.”
The NTSB’s report goes on and on like this. (It makes me
wonder what the situation would be like for emergency responders in my town
should one of the dozens of trains motoring through it derailed.)
The NTS Board Members raise critical issues concerning our
country’s hefty reliance
on volunteer fire fighters. They are an integral part of local emergency
response, but the NTSB asks some serious questions about the ability of
volunteers to respond safely to event such as the Paulsboro incident. NTSB
acting chairman Christopher Hart asked:
“How can volunteer firefighters obtain the training they
need to do their jobs adequately without being required to have so much
training that people who have full-time jobs will choose not to be a volunteer
firefighter because the training requirements are more than they can reasonably
handle?”
There was harsh criticism directed at individuals in charge
of the emergency response. NTS Board Member Sumwalt said:
“…when disasters occur, the very men and women putting their
lives on the line as first responders count on prudent, informed
decision-making by their incident commanders. While the decision to not
evacuate nearby Paulsboro residents can be somewhat explained by logistical
concerns and uncertainty, what is indefensible are the decisions, actions, and
inactions that placed first responders directly in harm’s way.”
Erring on the side of caution, as Debra Coyle McFadden suggests,
would be a good first step toward protecting the health of our community’s
emergency responders. The MMWR
article’s authors recommend ongoing health monitoring of the emergency
responders involved in the Paulsboro, NJ incident. The trouble is they note,
there’s not a complete roster of individuals who participated in the emergency
response.
Source: http://scienceblogs.com
