Fascinating Internet Tour of Bakken Oil Safety
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/energy/2014/04/140430-oil-train-derails-in-lynchburg-virginia/
On June 6, 2014, an Emergency Order issued by the U.S. Department of Transportation (U.S. DOT) went into effect requiring railroad carriers operating trains transporting 1,000,000 gallons or more of Bakken crude oil in a single train to provide information to the State Emergency Response Commission (SERC) regarding the estimated volumes and frequencies of the train traffic implicated. Specifically, the notification must do what is described in this link.
When residents in the Quebec town of Lac-Mégantic describe the scene after an oil-train derailed and then exploded there last July, they say the burning petroleum was like a wall of fire, or a river of fire.
The train derailment and explosions in Lac-Magantic, Quebec, Casselton, North Dakota, Aliceville, Alabama, and Lynchburg, Virginia, the pipeline breach along the Kalamazoo River in 2010, and the grounding of the Exxon-Valdez tanker in 1989 are reminders that accidents happen and have devastating consequences when it comes to transporting oil. Can it happen here?
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The hundreds of thousands who live in Tacoma and Pierce County are among those BNSF believes should not know what is traveling in their backyards and along the waterways. It appears, in these public records, that BNSF is not an exception. Next came the Genesee and Wyoming Company, Portland and Western whose Matthew E. Koon, Director of Compliance, provided dozens of pages stamped with “Confidential – Do not Copy or Distribute.”
For Tacoma Rail the warning is: “WARNING: This record contains Sensitive Security Information that is controlled under 49 CFR Parts 15 & 1520. No part of this record may be disclosed to persons without a “need to know”, as defined in 49 CFR Parts 15 & 1520, except with the written permission of the Administrator of the Transportation Security Administration or the Secretary of Transportation. Unauthorized release may result in civil penalty or other action. For U.S. government agencies, public disclosure is governed by 5 USC 552 and 49 CFR Part 15 & 1520.”
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