Train derailment and chemical spill in Ohio

NS deserves all the criticism it is getting for its FUBAR decision making. Also, I am regularly amazed how many Fortune 500 companies and elected officials have no clue about crisis management.

Elsewhere, Amsted Rail offers a freight car truck with onboard defect detectors. But it would take rulemaking by FRA/DOT to mandate it, like ECP brakes. $$$

New rules will definitely come out of this cluster, for sure.

 

Pretty much on point.

 

PTC (not that it's relevant here) applies to freight too, right?

Seems like everyone's been dragging their feet on that for 15 years.

Local environmental concern in my neck of the woods, where no one wants to buy what the city and Clean Harbors are selling (don't blame 'em).

Mayor: Air quality within ‘normal parameters’ after fire at Clean Harbors site in Braintree

 

Yes, PTC covers freight, which would cover most of the main rail routes in the U.S.

 

Don''t get me started on local environmental control. I live in Alabama, where Republican government is in the pocket of whatever industry is involved and making donations to shape law making and enforcement. The Public Utilities Commission is in the pocket of Alabama Power, so installing home solar is a financial loser because the rate that AlaPower pays for electricity returned to the grid is so low that you never reach a break even point. The Alabama Department of Environmental Management had to be taken to court and forced to prevent pollution from coal mines being dumped into a river a few hundred yards upstream of a City of Birmingham municipal water intake.

There is a classic case ongoing right now. In a county just east of B'ham there was a landfill that was basically unregulated because it was only supposed to accept biodegradable material, primarily vegetative. Instead they took whatever came through the gate. Tires, industrial waste, whatever was brought in was cool as long as they paid. Then the dump caught on fire underground and began to produce noxious chemical smoke and the thing turned into a finger pointing "not my jurisdiction" clusterfuck. The local municipality, the county, and the state all tried to push the disaster onto each other as it continued to burn and spew toxic and carcinogenic fumes for months. The fire started on Nov. 25th. Governor Ivey finally declared it a in "state of emergency" on Jan. 18, which gave the EPA standing and the EPA stepped in and started to actually begin to put out the fire the following day. If the feds had not gotten involved they'd still be wrangling in court about who was going to do something about it. Morons.

https://www.wbrc.com/2023/01/18/moo...g-residents-evacuate-separate-their-families/

https://www.al.com/news/birmingham/...ut-moody-landfill-fire-epa-now-estimates.html

Two days ago: ADEM update: Moody landfill fire in third month

 

The mine fire in Centralia, Pa., has been burning since 1962.

 

Norfolk Southern had another derailment Thursday. No fire or chemical spill but I'm sure the folks doing corporate PR were not happy to hear it.

Brockovitch with an EPA letter dated 2/10 that talks about "chemicals continuing to leak".

 

BNSF runs long trains through my town on a regular basis. They include tankers with all kinds of kinky chemicals that I shudder to think about thundering past a mile away.

However, BNSF also often runs "pusher" locomotives at the back of the train, which in theory gives a set of eyeballs to the ones in the front.

 

Opinion | Over 1,000 Trains Derail Every Year in America. Let’s Bring That Number Down.

 

shocking

Norfolk Southern’s Profits and Accident Rates Rose in Recent Years

 

Still no formal state of emergency?

Crazy.

Joint Statement from Ohio Governor DeWine and FEMA Regional Administrator Sivak

Ohio is facing a chemical disaster. Biden must declare a state of emergency | Steven Donziger

 

DeWine is claiming the EPA is telling him they don’t qualify for assistance.