In Big Lake, representatives of the police and fire departments have been in contact with officials from the Burlington, Northern & Santa Fe (BNSF) railroad in regard to further training for first responders who may be called to a similar mishap in the future.

 

Rail traffic through this area has increased greatly in recent years, including a large number of 90 car trains carrying tankers with oil from the Bakken fields in North Dakota.  Exports from these fields have grown from 100,000 barrels a day in October, 2010 to 750,000 barrels a day in October of 2013, according to the North Dakota Pipeline Authority.

 

Rail traffic through Clear Lake, Becker, Big Lake and Elk River also includes freight trains, Amtrak passenger trains and the Northstar light rail, which means that local rails may handle 80 trains per day.

 

Lt. Sam Olson of the Big Lake Police Dept. confirmed that his department has been contacted by BNSF in regard to new safety training procedures, which he said will be coordinated by the Big Lake Fire Dept. when the training dates are confirmed.  Olson is also a fire captain on the BLFD.

 

Assistant Chief Ken Halvorson also confirmed having been in contact with the railroad, and said he believes that the training will be conducted in March.  His department also will provide information to law enforcement agencies and fire departments in surrounding communities so that they can avail themselves of the enhanced training.

 

Officials at BNSF confirmed that a safety training plan for this area in currently being put together, but did not yet have a firm date for those sessions.  The railroad will issue a press release to provide more information and the training dates when available.

 

 

Preparedness and communication are essential in dealing with any type of disaster, according to Sherburne County Emergency Services Director Kyle Breffle. First responders in this area continually train for a variety of scenarios, including a terrorist attack, a tornado, floods or other natural disaster as well as situations such as railroad accidents, airplane crashes at St. Cloud Regional Airport or other situations that would involve the containment of hazardous materials, either chemical or nuclear.

 

To that end, the county has in place an incident management team, comprised of law enforcement, fire departments and public health agencies that meet on a monthly basis to share information and conduct exercises, both functional and tabletop recreations of specific scenarios that they may be required to deal with, Breffle said.

 

Communication is one of the most important byproducts of the monthly training sessions, Breffle said, as members of first responder agencies get to know and work with their counterpart in other parts of the county, and are aware of who and what agency to contact immediately in the event of a disaster scenario taking place.

A chain of command is also in place, with the local authorities most likely being the first on the scene.  Those authorities would make the first judgments as to the scope and severity of the situation, and to decide if further assistance is required from nearby agencies or at the county level.  Once emergency operations centers are activated, information will be provided to other departments and, if needed, further assistance will be requested.

 

The next step beyond the county level is to alert state authorities to the situation, and to decide whether further assistance is required from them.  The county sheriff is the individual who has the authority to request the governor to involve of the National Guard in an emergency.  Minnesota also has reciprocity agreements will all surrounding states for disaster relief services, Breffle said.

 

 

The Casselton derailment was the most recent in a string of tanker car accidents in 2013.  In that case, a west-bound train loaded with grain reportedly derailed and was then struck by an eastbound train carrying oil cars, 20 of which derailed and exploded, resulting in a large fire that created a plume of toxic smoke that prompted officials to evacuate the population of nearby Casselton.

 

There were no fatalities in that accident, nor were there any in a derailment in rural Alabama in November of last year that also resulted in a large fire as tank cars broke open on impact.

 

The most serious incident took place in Lac-Megantic, Quebec in July, 2013, when an unattended train derailed inside the town and exploded, causing 47 fatalities and a fire that destroyed much of the town center.  The railroad company that owned that train filed for bankruptcy a month later, according to the Bismarck Tribune. 

 

Following the Quebec accident, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration voted to take no action for one year from the date of the accident to continue to study the situation.  Following the Casselton accident, members of the North Dakota congressional delegation met with PHMSA head Cynthia Quarterman and Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx, and they later reported that they believed that federal officials were “moving quickly to respond to the issue.”

 

Minnesota U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar is one of many legislators who have called for oversight hearings on the issue of rail car safety since the Casselton derailment, though no dates for hearings have been established yet, according to her press office.  Klobuchar expressed particular concern over the status of the rank cars now being operated, saying in a statement that only 14,000 of the 92,000 tank cars now in service meet the latest safety standards.

 

 

American Association of Railroads spokesperson Holly Arthur stated recently that railroads are “always seeking to make their safety records even stronger,” and that  “99.997 per cent of all rail hazmat shipments reach their destination without a release caused by a train accident.”

According to Steven Forsberg, BNSF’s General Director of External Relations, there are eight “unit trains” of oil loaded at customer facilities across the BNSF network each day, ranging from North Dakota to Colorado to Texas. 

 

On August 2, 2013 the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) issued an Emergency Order and Safety Advisory regarding the movements of flammable liquids, which includes crude oil and ethanol.  As a result, BNSF and the rail industry implemented a number of additional measures to reduce risk and, in some cases, provide an additional layer of review to reinforce existing safety rules.    The measures are consistent with the changes recently ordered in Canada. 

 

 

The majority of tank cars carrying oil and ethanol are designated as type DOT-111, which have a thinner, single-skin type hull that experts consider vulnerable to penetration in the event of a crash. Newer tank cars are being built to a higher standard in terms of hull thickness, but a large number of the older cars will still be in service for years to come.  Older cars can be updated, but cost and increased weight are factors in the implementation of rebuilding them.

 

The PHMSA also issued an alert Jan. 2 indicating that the high-grade crude oil from the Bakken fields “may be more flammable than traditional heavy crude,” though tests have not confirmed that theory as of yet.

 

The National Transportation and Safety Board (NTSB) last week advised that oil trains be re-routed to avoid populated areas whenever possible.  Industry experts noted that rail lines are designed to link major cities, and that smaller “feeder” lines could pose a danger if they are not able to handle the heavier oil trains safely.  The NTSB also advised that crude oil be classified the same way as other toxic materials for transportation, which railroads are required to transport through unpopulated areas whenever feasible.