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Train cars, some of them presumably passing through Northeastern Pennsylvania, are hauling record amounts of oil – resulting in far more spills and combustible-fed catastrophes.
“More than 141 ‘unintentional releases’ were reported from railroad tankers in 2014, an all-time high,” the Washington Post recently reported. Each leakage can potentially contaminate soil and water. In the most attention-grabbing cases, the spills also involve massive explosions and widespread evacuations.
Last month in our region, the environmental advocacy group PennEnvironment Research & Policy Center cautioned that certain Wilkes-Barre neighborhoods in the 18702 ZIP code are among the most at risk in the state for a mass evacuation if an oil-toting train derails there. Scranton also was identified as a high-impact spot, where some 15,000-plus people could be temporarily displaced.
Granted, rail remains a statistically safe way to move North America’s surging amount of crude oil headed to market; only a tiny fraction of cars carrying it are involved in mishaps, the railroad industry reports. Even so, there’s recognition from Pennsylvania’s elected officials and others that more can be done to further minimize risks.
Gov. Tom Wolf has written to President Barack Obama requesting transportation safety improvements. Likewise, U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Scranton, joined with Senate colleagues from New York, Ohio and three other states to push for the speedy release of new tanker car standards. In a letter to the federal Office of Management and Budget, the senators wrote, “These outdated cars, when laden with unstable crude oil, pose a significant risk to communities that they travel through and must be removed, replaced, or retrofitted as quickly as possible.”
Meanwhile, Casey also has co-sponsored legislation called the Response Act, aimed at ensuring firefighters and others are properly trained to respond when the inevitable occurs. That’s a sensible move, considering the nation lacks a short-term fix for better handling the movement of oil from the fields where it’s pulled to refineries, cities, ports and other places where it’s needed.
Building a higher-capacity pipeline network takes time. Ditto for switching America to cleaner fuels, presuming advances in technology will allow them to power more of the country’s energy needs.
A recent Pittsburgh Post-Gazette editorial stated, “Short of a nationwide ban on crude oil shipments, there isn’t much that can be done quickly, but there is one thing: The government can make sure that emergency teams and technical experts are fully trained to respond when a derailment occurs.”
In Luzerne County and surrounding areas, let’s not wait until a disaster strikes to test our capability to cope with an oil tanker emergency.