Hot Zone News Archives 2005

Woman dead after Arkansas train derailment An Arkansas woman is dead following a fiery railyard accident that also destroyed her home.

Meanwhile, hundreds of others have been allowed back in their homes after a train derailment that released toxic chemicals into the air. Authorities said a tanker car loaded with flammable gas derailed and exploded before dawn Saturday.

Firefighters are allowing the fire to burn itself out. They said it should be out by sometime today. October 16th, 2005, Capital News

Danger may be riding the rails Editorial
… but the railroads aren't eager to share that information. Congress has to force them.

Maybe it's us. Maybe we're just too dense to appreciate the thinking behind the virtually universal policy among the nation's rail freight carriers that says, in effect: What we carry on our rail lines is none of your business. It may be hazardous; it may be toxic; it may be explosive or highly flammable; and it may be rolling right through your backyard. But we're not going to tell you ahead of time what's on the train and, in the oh so unlikely event of a derailment, you're going to have to come looking for a manifest. And do not even think we'll let you hold it in your hands while you search for signs of impending doom.
We admit it. We don't get it. We also don't like it and we sure as heck think somebody ought to change it fast before somebody gets killed because of corporate stubbornness. October 15th, 2005 Record Online

Cleanup following train derailment expected to last a couple of days Texarkana - An investigation into the cause of Saturday's train derailment and collision in Texarkana, Arkansas is underway.

An elderly Texarkana woman was killed by a fire sparked by the collision.

The accident happened around 5 o'clock Saturday morning at the Union Pacific Rail yard. Officials say seven empty train cars and a tanker carrying propylene derailed and collided in the switchyard. That then ignited an explosion that sent flames soaring into the morning sky. Smoke from the fire could be seen up to eight miles away.

One fire official said, "The fire ball was probably about 18-hundred feet at its base." October 15th, 2005 KTBS News

Explosion in Arkansas Prompts Evacuation Hundreds of Homes Are Evacuated After Train Car-Gas Tank Explosion Occurs in Arkansas

Hundreds of homes were evacuated Saturday after a liquid propane gas tank was hit by a Union Pacific train car, exploding in a ball of fire and leaving a plume of smoke over the south end of the city, a police spokesman said.

Officers went door to door and urged thousands of people to move to the north side of town while firefighters put out the blaze.

The air quality was of most concern because a train car carrying vinyl acetate caught fire, police spokesman Chris Rankin said. Rankin said fumes from the chemical are "most definitely poisonous." October 15th, 2005, ABC News

Emergency workers share lessons from Graniteville disaster NORFOLK, Va. -- Plumes of thick smoke billowed out of a mangled heap of twisted black metal. A white car lay crushed under a fallen tree. Railroad cars were tossed on top of one another like a child’s train set cast aside.

A woman screams at a 911 operator, “I can’t see anything. There’s smoke. I’m by

Press-Enterprise Special Report

myself. I’ve got to get out of here.” Another man yells on the phone, “It’s chlorine. It’s chlorine. We can’t get out.”

This was the scene that Robin Chapman, a public relations manager for Norfolk-based Norfolk Southern Corp., faced on Jan. 6 this year in Graniteville, S.C., when one of his company’s trains transporting chlorine collided with a parked train at 2:40 a.m. The collision covered the small mill town’s downtown with a blanket of 90 tons of the deadly gas. October 13th, 2005, BLET

One Minot derailment lawsuit settled FARGO, N.D. -- Lawyers for hundreds of people seeking damages in a deadly 2002 train derailment and chemical spill west of Minot are touting the first settlement in the case.

The claims filed by Henry and Linda Juntunen and their son, Joey, of Minot, against Canadian Pacific Railway were settled Tuesday morning "on the proverbial courtroom steps," said Ron Barczak, an attorney for the family. The case was set to go to trial next week.

"It's very encouraging that Canadian Pacific has stepped up and settled this rather major case," said Mike Miller, a Fargo attorney handling 20 separate states' cases against the railroad as well as a class action lawsuit involving nearly 1,000 people. "My clients are very anxious to move forward."

A spokeswoman for the railroad declined comment Wednesday. Canadian Pacific has said it will not comment on the lawsuits as they move through the courts.

The Juntunen family lived in the rural Minot neighborhood that was enveloped by the cloud of anhydrous ammonia early on the morning of Jan. 18, 2002. Joey was 17 or 18 at the time, Barczak said.

The Juntunens suffered breathing problems and other health problems from which they have not yet recovered, the attorney said. Though they still live in the Minot area, "they did not move back into the home that had been engulfed by this poisonous fog," Barczak said Wednesday.

"They are glad that they are done (with the court case), but they wish it would have never happened," he said. October 13th, 2005, BLET

Train wreck snarls service 18 cars derail in Amsterdam, causing rail delays between Albany and Syracuse

Ten of the cars that derailed were empty, including the car that landed in the river. That car contained a residue of ignet, a powdery substance O'Connell likened to aluminum. Department of Environmental Conservation officials said there was no risk of contamination from the car that landed in the river.

Other cars contained loads of the nontoxic powder, wood pulp and soy bean oil, officials said.

The derailment was the first in recent memory in Amsterdam. The accident is dwarfed by a derailment that occurred in Fonda in December 1995, when 51 cars were knocked off the rails. One of those had been carrying sodium hydroxide that spilled into nearby farmland and forced the evacuation of homes. October 13th, 2005, Times Union

Two trains go off tracks There were two train derailments in the B.C. Interior on Tuesday morning – in the span of about an hour.

Four cars went off the track just outside the CP railyard in Kamloops, which partially blocked the nearby Trans-Canada Highway. A short time later in the Fraser Canyon, a CN train hit a slide in a steep section near Yale causing a diesel spill.

CP is in charge of that cleanup as well because the accident happened on track it owns. Cocolicchio says the extent of the damage to the rail line is still not known.

RCMP Const. Steve Hiscoe says two railway employees were taken to hospital with minor injuries.

Environmental cleanup crews have been sent to Yale to assess the damage. October 11, 2005, CBC British Columbia

Teamsters report on rail safety seeks more training, curbs on remote control According to IBT's survey, 87 percent of respondents said there was no certified engineer available to assist or relieve other engineers in case of emergency or hijacking.

Meanwhile, 84 percent of respondents said they had not received training related to terrorism prevention and response in the previous 12 months. Virtually all of those IBT members surveyed (99 percent) said they had not received training specific to the monitoring of nuclear waste shipments, 62 percent said they had not been trained on their role in their railroad's emergency response plan, and 37 percent said they had not received training from their railroad on the Department of Transportation's hazardous materials placarding system.

"The results of this survey are startling and, I would have to say, somewhat frightening," John Murphy, director of the Teamsters Rail Conference, said at a Sept. 29 news conference. October 11, 2005 BLET

Critics of planned port rail yard raise smog concerns Although still in the early planning stages, a sprawling rail facility that would straddle Wilmington and Long Beach has many Harbor Area residents concerned that the complex will add to local air pollution problems.

Several hundred people attended a public meeting last week in Long Beach, saying that the facility is too close to schools and homes. With another meeting set for Thursday in Wilmington, officials from Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway are asking the public to give them time to present their case, saying that they are doing everything to address environmental concerns. October 11, 2005, Daily Breeze

Opinion: Managing risk Government regulators must also be aggressive in making sure the laws governing the transport and storage of such chemicals are followed. The railcar containing styrene apparently began leaking because somebody lost track of the car, which was sitting on a railroad siding, and a chemical that is added periodically to stabilize the flammable styrene had expired. The incident could have been much worse - the car was in danger of exploding but was cooled down by fire hoses before it could get to that point.

Which brings us to the bottom line. The location of rail lines and plants that use chemicals in highly developed areas is not the ideal situation, to say the least. In many cases we just have to live with it - a water treatment plant must use chemicals to purify water, and we need the jobs these plants provide. October 19th, 2005, BLET

Minot derailment lawsuits hitting the courts, three years later BISMARCK, N.D. -- Nearly four years after his life was changed forever, Tom Lundeen's focus is shifting from constant worries about his family's health to a Minneapolis courtroom where he hopes for some sign of resolution.

The battle over injuries and damages after a Jan. 18, 2002, Canadian Pacific Railway derailment and chemical spill on the outskirts of Minot is headed for a jury trial. Pretrial motions are scheduled in Minneapolis late this week, before a Hennepin County judge, with jury selection expected to start the following week.

The first handful of many lawsuits against the railroad are scheduled to be tried together. Attorneys say the outcome could lay the groundwork for resolving other cases filed after the disaster that still haunts Lundeen and his neighbors. October 10th, 2005, BLET

'Where's styrene?' call in vain Terminal says it tried to inform railroad The intended recipient of a rail car filled with styrene that overheated and caused an

Quote of the week, October 6th, 2005, by Patti Sramek, Long Beach California resident concerning proposed railroad yard: "They're trying to treat us like a third-world country. It's just a dumping ground over here,"

evacuation of Cincinnati's East End in August said it twice notified the railroad shipping the hazardous material that the car was overdue - but got no response.

Officials at Queen City Terminals noticed the rail car was missing in January after checking a bill sent by manufacturer Westlake Chemical Corp. (describing the contents of the rail car) with an inventory of the cars they had received, said spokesman Rick Rainey.

The car sat, abandoned, on a siding near Lunken Airport for five months before it erupted, spewing a plume of fumes and raising the possibility of an explosion. October 6th, 2005 Cincinnati Enquirer

Proposed Rail Yard Angers Residents of Nearby Long Beach Community Long Beach residents are protesting plans by the Port of Los Angeles to build a 153-acre rail yard just upwind of a working-class neighborhood with five public schools, a day-care center and a homeless veterans' center.

Critics said the 1 million diesel-belching trucks that would carry cargo to the yard each year would worsen air pollution in an area of west Long Beach and Wilmington that they called a "sacrifice zone" for the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, the nation's two largest seaports. October 6th, 2005 L.A. Times

Styrene leak prompts advisory The railcar chemical leak that caused the evacuation of more than 800 residents in Cincinnati's East End prompted a safety advisory from the Federal Railroad Administration Wednesday to railroads and others that deal with hazardous materials.

"FRA's investigation into the styrene incident in Cincinnati is not yet complete, but the fact that a car of time-sensitive material, carrying an inhibitor, was apparently allowed to languish on the same railroad for seven months is not acceptable," Daniel Smith, the agency's associate administrator for safety, said in the advisory.

The advisory recommends railroads, shippers and receivers of time-sensitive materials follow new industry standards that went into effect Sept. 1, just days after the styrene leak began in Linwood near Lunken Airport, threatening to cause a large explosion. October 6th, 2005 Cincinnati Post

St. Bernard plant called worst-case accident site

Residents of Cincinnati's East End and nearby neighborhoods were evacuated because of a lone railroad tank car leaking styrene vapors in August, but other chemical risks, potentially even more dangerous, are parked at dozens of businesses and rail sidings across the region.

More than 60 companies in Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky use one or more hazardous chemicals in large-enough amounts that they're required to file risk-management plans with the federal government, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The St. Bernard plant is one of about 110 facilities in the United States that, in the event of a worst-case accident, could pose a danger to more than a million people in surrounding areas, according to EPA data. October 6th, 2005 Cincinnati Post

Textile lawsuit blames damage on Norfolk Avondale claims railroad's actions harmed business AIKEN - Avondale Mills Inc. is suing Norfolk Southern Corp. and three fired employees for damages caused by the January train crash and chlorine spill, according to a copy of the lawsuit obtained Wednesday.

The suit states that the train company and its workers were negligent and have "caused Avondale's textile business catastrophic damage." Textile production has yet to return to full capacity at Avondale, and the company announced Tuesday that it is laying off about 350 people. October 6th, 2005 Augusta Chronicle

Graniteville Train Crash Report coming AIKEN - A federal investigation of the Graniteville train disaster is almost complete, and final results might be published before year's end, according to a lead investigator.

National Transportation Safety Board officials have traveled to the small mill town many times since the Jan. 6 train collision and chlorine spill that killed nine people and injured hundreds more. October 6th, 2005 Augusta Chronicle

Toxic Gumbo Oil is not the only toxin that saturates Louisiana and threatens the health of residents returning to New Orleans and adjacent parishes. The Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality reports that muck covering the area is contaminated with human waste and bacteria, including E.coli, a fecal bacterium. It estimates that between 1,000 and 5,000 railroad cars have been damaged by Katrina, including some carrying chlorine or sulfuric acid. The EPA says water may be polluted by arsenic and lead from paint and the batteries of 350,000 submerged cars. Shattered homes and businesses are contaminated with asbestos and mold. October 6th, 2005, Salon

EPA probing railway waste dumps NORTH BERGEN - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, at the urging of two congressmen, is investigating the dumping of tons of construction and demolition waste at open-air waste transfer stations in the township. October 5th, 2005 North Jersey.com

Graniteville is free from spill contaminants - Graniteville residents can breath easy, say officials of the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control.

They can also plant flowers and wade in Horse Creek without fear of exposure to chlorine, diesel fuel or creosol.

About 70 people gathered at Leavelle McCampbell Middle School on Tuesday night to hear the results of air, soil and water samples taken in and around the site of the January train wreck and chlorine spill that killed nine and sickened hundreds.

Three experts explained the sampling methods and conclusions in some depth, which were summed up in one sentence by Nancy Whittle, DHEC's environmental quality control community liaison.

"We did not find chlorine gas in soil, in air or in water," Ms. Whittle said. October 5th, 2005 Augusta Chronicle

Graniteville mills begin 350 layoffs GRANITEVILLE - Avondale Mills Inc. officials announced Tuesday that 350 employees will be laid off, a move that comes after months of coping with the aftermath of a January chlorine spill that corroded some of its key textile plants.

"It's a direct result of the difficulties we've experienced because of the January derailment," said Stephen Felker Jr., a company spokesman. October 5th, 2005, Augusta Chronicle

CN spokesman Jim Feeny said yesterday that there have been 1.4 accidents per million train miles so far, compared with 1.7 during the same period last year.

"CN's accident ratio is substantially lower than the Canadian industry average," he said.

In the latest incident, two tanker cars loaded with propane and four empty cars went off the tracks at the Walker Yard at 97 Street and 127 Avenue around 11:30 p.m. Saturday.

The cars remained upright and no propane leaked, Feeny said. October 3rd, 2005 Edmonton Sun

The revelation came during an informal hearing in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court Thursday morning among 19 lawyers and Judge Melba Marsh, who has been assigned the case. September 30th, 2005 Cincinnati Enquirer

CN tracking latest derailment Another CN train has gone off the rails, this one southeast of Edmonton. Yesterday's accident was the sixth derailment for the corporation in the past two months.

A locomotive, which leaked about 30 litres of diesel fuel, and 10 empty freight cars went off the rails near New Sarepta, 48 km southeast of Edmonton.

A preliminary investigation by the Transportation Safety Board indicates a broken rail may have caused the derailment. September 27, 2005 Edmonton Sun

VANCOUVER -- CP Rail and provincial environmental officials are cleaning up after a derailment Sunday in southeastern B.C. spilled an unidentified amount of potash at the Moyie River.

Exactly how much potash spilled out of the two cars that turned upside down is in dispute between CP Rail and the Environment Ministry.

The ministry says 100 tonnes of the reddish powdered fertilizer leaked, but the rail company says the spill was smaller.

"We don't have a confirmed amount," said CP Rail spokesman Ed Greenburg. "It's a minimal amount that made it to the river's edge." September 27th, 2005, Globe and Mail

Cities pitch rail hazmat bans JACKSONVILLE -- Four major cities have pending legislation to ban certain hazardous materials from being carried by rail through at least part of their jurisdictions, even though CSX Transportation Inc. is challenging the only such locally enacted law in federal court.

CSXT attorneys were in court Sept. 21 for a procedural hearing in the company's lawsuit to void Washington, D.C.'s law banning hazardous shipments within 2.2 miles of the U.S. Capitol. CSXT has already won a ruling from an appeals court enjoining the city from enforcing its law. September 25th, 2005, MSNBC

Empty nuclear waste container tips over BUFFALO, N.Y. -- An empty container used to store spent nuclear fuel tipped over Thursday while being hauled by train to a shipyard. The container was not damaged and there was no release of radiation, the Department of Energy said.

The 320,000-pound container tipped when the train sideswiped another in the CSX Frontier Railyard in Buffalo, CSX spokesman Gary Sease said. No one was hurt.

The container was being taken to the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine, from the DOE's Naval Reactors Facility at the Idaho National Laboratory, where it had been emptied of used nuclear fuel from a Navy warship.

The container had no visible damage, and testing confirmed no release of radioactivity, said Jim Carey, a spokesman for the DOE's Pittsburgh Naval Reactors Office. September 23, 2005 BLET

CN toxic spill on Cheakamus River; need to commit resources to upgrade Railway Act Squamish Canada - (letter to the editor) As you probably know, there was a toxic spill [caustic soda/Sodium Hydroxide-a highly corrosive liquid used in the pulp and paper industry] due to a derailed CN railcar in the Cheakamus River canyon just north of Squamish, BC, Aug. 6, 2005. As a resident of Paradise Valley immediately downriver from the spill location, and a business leader in my community, I am compelled to do whatever I can to ensure such a disaster does not happen again. September 23, 2005 Whistler Question

SLRD voices CN concerns Length of trains presents safety, environmental issues, say directors In response to the CN train derailment in the Cheakamus Canyon on Aug. 5, Lillooet Mayor Greg Kamenka is calling for change. After talking to a number of CN employees, Kamenka said long trains and the sharp curves of the Sea to Sky corridor do not mix. He said anything beyond 60 to 70 cars is risking derailment.

In August, part of a 144-car train plunged into the Cheakamus River en-route to Prince George. One tanker spilled 41,000 litres of caustic soda into the river, causing widespread ecological damage.

Although a Ministry of Transportation investigation is ongoing, the SLRD board of directors is asking for more action. Squamish Director Raj Kahlon witnessed the damage firsthand and insists CN needs immediate change. He contends that CN trains are too long to travel safely through the Cheakamus Canyon and more trips need to be taken. He was adamant that 10 more derailments must not happen.

“This is a unique stretch of railway and the time has come for action,” Kahlon said at Monday’s regular board meeting. “I want strong words and I don’t want to back down.” September 23, 2005 Whistler Question

Judge Demands To View Rail Plan D.C. Hazmat Cargo Ban At Issue in CSX Lawsuit Washington D.C. - A federal judge yesterday demanded to see a highly secret plan for protecting the Washington area's rails from a chemical attack and erupted after a Justice Department attorney said he doubted the government would comply.

U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan said he was stunned and offended by the government's hesitation and ordered that a copy of the document be delivered to his chambers by 10 a.m. today.

"The government doesn't want me to see the plan, says they don't have to give it to me, which I quite frankly find offensive," Sullivan declared, glaring at the Justice Department attorneys. "I want to see the plan with my own eyes, and I'm not going to rely upon the assertions of government lawyers."

The judge's demand came at a hearing in a lawsuit over a D.C. law that prohibits the rail shipment of hazardous materials through the city. CSX Transportation Inc. filed suit to overturn the ban, and the federal government joined on the railroad's behalf. The law, which was to have taken effect in April, has been on hold pending a decision in the court case.

In court yesterday, Sullivan said he needed to see the rail security plan, which was developed by CSX, to verify for himself that it even exists. CSX submitted the plan to the federal government, which has been reviewing it to determine how much of it can be released. September 22, 2005 Washington Post

Train Derailment Forces Residents to Evacuate Toledo, OH -A train derailment in South Toledo has forced dozens of residents out of their homes.

Officials say it the accident happened around midnight Tuesday morning.

Authorities tell ONN affiliate WNWO, three to eight cars derailed and then overturned.

They say at least one car was carrying liquid petroleum; a hazardous chemical. So far, there are no reports of any leakage or injury.

Residents were taken by TARTA bus to Libbey High School for precautionary measures.

Crews are expected to continue working until noon, so residents may be withheld from their homes until then.

Officers are stressing that children should not use the sidewalks in the accident area on their way to school. September 20, 2005 Ohio News Network

Deputy commander has 'long term' issues with ethanol facility Chambersburg, PA - The highest ranking civilian at Letterkenny Army Depot raised serious concerns Monday about an ethanol plant that could be built next door to the installation north of Chambersburg. Rail tankers would transport the ethanol. The tracks in the business park have had four derailments since 1999. Trains hauling ethanol derailed in California, Indiana and Kansas in the first week of September. September 20, 2005 Public Opinion

Repairing rails in the Gulf Coast Last week, the company sent a 3-mile convoy of vehicles and more than 100 workers into the Gentilly Yards at New Orleans, which were flooded in the wake of Katrina. Most of the water is gone, but it left behind tangles of overturned rail cars and shipping containers, plus whole sections of undermined track. Corman officials said crews will live on site in trailers and motor homes for up to three weeks while they complete repairs.

Hundreds of rail cars that were flooded will have to be inspected. If the cars' wheel hubs were underwater, federal regulations require that wheel bearings and other parts be replaced before the cars can go back into operation, said Noel Rush, president of R.J. Corman Derailment Services, a part of the Corman Group.September18th, 2005 Lexington Herarld-Leader

Train collision kills worker, forcing evacuation SHEPHERD -- Two Union Pacific trains collided and derailed north of Houston in downtown Shepherd, killing one employee, forcing an overnight evacuation of hundreds of residents and canceling school today.

Long-Haul, Short-Line Trains Block, Boost NoCo Business Colorado - "Some people argue that the trains were here first," said Willis. "But the lines were put in Larimer County to haul sugar beets. Now they carry ammonium nitrate, propane and chlorine right through the middle of town."

Leaking Tanker Car Was Ticking Time-Bomb

Public inquiry with full participation needed to solve CN derailment habit say

Steelworkers TORONTO, With reports of yet another train derailment since the beginning of August, United Steelworkers' National Director Ken Neumann is calling for a full public inquiry into the practices of Canadian National Railway Company. August 23rd, 2005 United Steelworkers of America

Residents In Pritchett Are Furious With The Lack of Support From Union Pacific

Judge in S.C. OKs Suit in Train Evacuation A federal judge approved a class-action settlement Wednesday for damages from a January train wreck that killed nine people as it spread a toxic cloud over the nearby mill town of Graniteville. August 18th, 2005 Washington Post

Judge approves class-action settlement despite some concerns A federal judge approved a class-action settlement Wednesday involving one of the nation's worst chemical spills in nearly three decades, despite concerns from some residents.

Toxic cloud plaintiffs give voice to anger One after another, they stood in the Allen Temple Church of God in Christ to give their accounts of the day a toxic cloud hovered over the city and their disappointment 10 years later when they received their piece of a $50 million class-action settlement.

Lawsuit says job caused illness The wife of an NJ Transit employee who died in 2002 of a job-related lung disease was awarded $19.2 million Wednesday by a Superior Court jury. August 11th, 2005 APP.com

D.C. train ban remains on hold while other cities efforts advance Efforts to ban certain rail shipments of toxic chemicals are moving forward in some U.S. cities despite a lengthy court battle that has put on hold a ban the District of Columbia enacted in February.

More time sought for Graniteville claims Lawyer wants train wreck evacuees to have until Sept. 15 to file August 5th, 2005 The State

When Chemicals Attack By Senator Joe Biden There's little doubt that if a nuclear or biological weapon were discovered in a crowded stadium or at a busy airport, the federal government would act swiftly and decisively to remove the threat, preserve

public calm and bring the guilty parties to justice. Yet, the Bush administration continues to turn a blind eye to a major threat that is comparable in scope: toxic chemicals carried by rail cars through densely populated cities and towns. August 2nd, 2005 Washington Post