Soaring use of crude oil bomb trains spreading toxic risks across New York
The extraction of Canadian tar sands and North Dakotan Bakken shale oil has sparked a firestorm of international protest over the threat that this emerging source of crude oil could destabilize the Earth’s climate. To date, the Keystone XL pipeline—the fuse by which this climate “bomb” would be lit—has been blocked by the Obama administration.
But while the focus has been on stopping pipelines, oil companies have been quietly looking to the railways to transport this dirty fuel from the North American heartland to its coastal refineries thousands of miles away. New Yorkers are now just waking up to the fact that hundreds upon hundreds of crude oil rail cars rumble from Buffalo and the upper reaches of Lake Champlain to Albany and points south every day along some of the state’s most important waterways and city centers. This “pipeline-on-rails” has never received an environmental review, yet represents apocalyptic risks.
Just last July, a train carrying 74 tanker cars of this crude oil derailed and exploded in the tourist town of Lac Megantic, Quebec, killing 47 people and incinerating 30 homes and businesses. Last December, in Casselton, ND, a crude oil train collision forced emergency responders to evacuate 2,500 people to minimize human exposure to the toxic smoke from a 100-foot-high fireball.
Soaring number of spills
Less noticed, more oil was spilled in North America by rail car last year (1.15 million gallons) than in the previous 40 years combined, in 137 separate accidents. If any of these accidents had happened at the Port of Albany or any other point along the state’s rail corridor, including Rochester, Syracuse, Utica, Plattsburgh, Schenectady, Binghamton, Newburgh, West Point or Nyack, it would have threatened the lives of tens of thousands of people, including those at the state Capitol, state agency buildings and extensive neighborhoods and housing developments.
The problem is two-fold:
- Fracked crude oil from the Bakken shale is much more explosive than traditional crude oil, and
- DOT-111 cars or “bomb trains,” as rail engineers call them, are prone to derailment and structural failure. The use of DOT-111 cars has increased dramatically over the past three years from 10,000 cars in 2009 to more than 400,000 in use by the end of 2013. In late 2013, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration determined that Bakken crude had a much lower flashpoint than other forms of crude, making it a significantly more dangerous cargo for the defective DOT-111 cars to carry.
 DOT-111 cars or "bomb trains," as rail engineers call them, are prone to derailment and structural failure. The use of DOT-111 cars has increased dramatically over the past three years from 10,000 cars in 2009 to more than 400,000 by the end of 2013. The derailment above caused one of the largest fish kills ever recorded in Illinois. |
Currently, 1.2 billion gallons of Bakken crude move through the Port of Albany annually, in thousands of DOT 111 railcars. Crude shipments from Albany are expected to grow, as state permits allow terminals operated by Global Partners LLC and another company at the port, Houston-based Buckeye Partners, to handle up to 2.8 billion gallons annually.
Each day, as many as 120 railroad tanker cars arrive at the port and pump crude oil into double-hulled ships and barges that ply the Hudson River. Global says it has the capability to offload two 120-car trains in a 24-hour period. In December, 2012, one of the first ships to haul this crude oil wrecked only a few miles down-river from the port, but the tear in the hull did not pierce the inner skin of the vessel, narrowly avoiding disaster.
The most frustrating aspect of the crude by rail/ship transport phenomenon is that New York State and local communities are assuming enormous risks with little economic benefit—all in a regulatory environment where the vast majority of jurisdiction rests with indifferent federal agencies. Simply put, because of the interstate commerce clause and preemptive laws governing rail transportation, there’s not much we can do at the state level to control or block these Bakken bomb trains from rolling through our communities. The only opportunity to assert state jurisdiction is the control of air quality permits at the Port of Albany.
In November, Global Partners LLC applied to the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation for a Title V air permit to build a seven-unit boiler system at the port to heat heavy crude coming off rail cars (through steam pipes within the insulated walls of the rail tankers) to reduce viscosity and facilitate more fluid transfer to ships. This permit application gives the state some control over the larger impacts through the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA).
Because the relatively light crude coming from North Dakota has already been able to pass through Albany over the past few winters, it is assumed that this application is meant to facilitate heavy tar sands oil (or bitumen) that originates in Alberta, Canada, and requires heat treatment or dilution to transfer from rail to tanker ship. Tar sands oil, when spilled into water, is virtually impossible to clean up because it sinks and slowly oozes a hazardous plume into the water, rather than floating at the surface like other oils.
Incredibly, the DEC, on the heels of granting an expansion to Global LLC’s Title V air permit for increased capacity of Bakken crude, issued a negative declaration of significance for the boiler facility. The DEC claimed that it did not see a major environmental impact stemming from the project, abdicating a rare opportunity to assert jurisdictional control by requiring an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). The only opportunity for the public to engage now is in a comment period ending on June 2.
The Albany planning board also has jurisdiction over the boiler facility through the site plan review process. On December 19, the Albany planning board was poised to issue a negative declaration of significance, but public pressure helped convince them to table the issue until an undetermined date while they contemplate asking Global Partners LLC to conduct a full environmental review.
Since that time Global has withdrawn its application before the City and has relocated its planned boiler facility to a site within the port district boundary – a move the company believes significantly curtails city government’s control over its operations.
Citizen outrage
The good news is that citizen outrage with the apparent lack of government oversight or concern has rapidly transformed into an inspiring groundswell of community organizing. In Albany, the working class neighborhoods of the South End, which border the endless queues of DOT-111 cars, have demanded that the DEC respect their rights as citizens already struggling with a disproportionate share of industrial pollution.
As it turns out the DEC has ignored its own environmental justice policies and allowed Global Partners LLC to receive multiple permits without the required public participation plans and community outreach. In addition, the DEC accepted at face value claims from Global Partners LLC in their permit applications that they would increase the flow of crude through the Port of Albany by billions of gallons without increasing the number of rail cars. This blatant misinformation and failure to comply with permitting requirements should be reason enough to reopen permits and allow room for what should have been conducted in the first place—a full environmental review of all the impacts associated with a major crude oil distribution hub.
Through pressure from our attorneys at Earthjustice, and in concert with other advocacy organizations and some stellar local public officials, the DEC has agreed to require an enhanced Public Participation Plan, forcing Global Partners LLC to sit down with the impacted environmental justice communities and discuss mitigations.
In late January, Governor Cuomo issued Executive Order 125, directing several state agencies to do a top-to-bottom review of safety procedures and emergency response preparedness related to shipments of volatile crude oil. And, in late February the federal DOT announced that major freight railways voluntarily agreed to decrease speed limits for oil trains in some cities, increase track inspections, add more safety controls on trains and improve the training of emergency medical workers.
But these measures have a hollow feel to them; they are voluntary gestures that have neither the teeth of enforcement nor the scope to fundamentally solve the problem. In fact, the industry does not have the capacity to rapidly produce safer alternatives to the DOT-111 bomb trains. Without an enforceable federal mandate, accidents will keep happening for years while this fleet is slowly replaced by the next-generation rail car. The larger issue of stopping the facilitation of some of the world’s dirtiest forms of energy, be it through rail transport or pipeline, still appears out of state control.
On February 19, the Center for Biological Diversity served notice of intent to sue the U.S. Coast Guard and the Environmental Protection Agency for violating the Endangered Species Act by not contemplating the impact that a crude oil spill in the Hudson River could have on short-nosed sturgeon and at least a dozen other threatened or endangered species as part of federal spill prevention policies. In mid March, Albany County Executive Daniel McCoy declared a moratorium on any new crude oil heating infrastructure within the county. Citing broad powers granted to the county by the Public Health Law, McCoy declared that nothing could move forward until the completion of an environmental review designed to protect citizens from the potential safety hazards associated with crude oil transport. Global immediately threatened to sue, but has not but has not followed through on that legal threat to date. These actions come as the Atlantic Chapter and other groups prepare to challenge the DEC’s refusal to conduct an environmental impact statement for the unloading of crude oil at the port of Albany.
With our impending fights in the courts meeting an anticipated increase in crude oil shipments, this spring is shaping up to be a volatile clash between industry profiteers and the protectors of our rivers, communities and climate.
What you can do
Tell the DEC that you are concerned about:
- The impact that an increasingly likely crude oil spill could have on the Mohawk River, the Hudson River estuary, Lake Champlain and other state waterways.
- The ability of the State’s aging rail infrastructure to take on this massive new cargo without serious risk to derailment.
- The relative safety of the rail cars and the heating methods used to alter the viscosity of crude oil.
- The impact that crude oil transport has on already impacted environmental justice communities and disaster response infrastructure.
Comments will be accepted until June 2, 2014.
E-mail your comments to: r4dep@gw.dec.state.ny.us
Mail your comments to:
Karen M. Gaidasz
NYSDEC Region 4 Headquarters
1130 North Westcott Rd.
Schenectady, NY 12306
(518) 357-2069