Ohio: East Palestine Train Derailment, Risk of Explosion

[Cool Cats]

‘Déjà vu’: A train derailment 40 years ago holds clues for East Palestine’s future

The train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, echoes a similar crash 40 years ago in Louisiana.

www.yahoo.com

Pictured below is the train derailment in Livingston, La., in 1982. Both East Palestine and Livingston
involved some of the same chemicals, including vinyl chloride. Both communities saw train cars catch fire and chemical fires pollute the air.


In East Palestine, “a lot of things that have happened seemed eerily similar to what happened in Livingston over 40 years ago,” said Bennett, who as a local judge spent decades overseeing the aftermath of a legal settlement reached after the derailment.

The class action, which was settled in 1985, ultimately guided the cleanup and recovery process and reshaped the town. The $39 million settlement paid out more than 3,000 residents, created a commission to make decisions about the recovery and set aside funds to pay for long-term impacts.

 

[Cool Cats]

‘We all knew it was going to happen’: Railroad workers and unions say years of cost-cutting and safety pushback created the Ohio train disaster

The Norfolk Southern derailment that created a toxic plume this month highlights major problems in the rail industry.

www.yahoo.com

Ohio Train Derailment Contamination Fears Spread Beyond East Palestine

Weeks after a train derailment near the Ohio-Pennsylvania border left hazardous chemicals burning from railcars, fears of the potential impacts are being felt in places far from the accident. Grocery chain Giant Eagle, with hundreds of stores in five states including Ohio and Pennsylvania...

www.yahoo.com

Concerns range from bottled water in Columbus to wastewater disposal in Houston​

 

[arielilane]

Came across this article during search.

Ohio among worst in nation for train accidents and hazardous material spills, our investigation finds

Our investigation finds Ohio is one of the worst in the nation for train accidents and hazardous spills during transport and a new train accident in Ohio fuels calls for more regulation of trains

www.daytondailynews.com

 

[Cool Cats]

Residents near Ohio train derailment diagnosed with ailments associated with chemical exposure, including bronchitis​

Residents near Ohio train derailment diagnosed with ailments associated with chemical exposure, including bronchitis

People near the Ohio site where a train derailed are being diagnosed with bronchitis and other issues that doctors and nurses say are linked to chemical exposure.

www.yahoo.com

Melissa Blake, who lives within a mile of the crash site in East Palestine, Ohio, said she started coughing up gray mucus and was struggling to breathe on Feb. 5, two days after the Norfolk Southern train derailed. That day she evacuated her home and also went to the emergency room, where she was diagnosed with “acute bronchitis due to chemical fumes,” according to medical records reviewed by NBC News.

“They gave me a breathing machine. They put me on oxygen. They gave me three types of steroids,” Blake said. She has yet to move back home since being discharged nearly three weeks ago.

 

[steeltowngirl]

“These chemicals take time to move in the water. You’re going to need groundwater monitoring. People on well water: You really need to be on alert. They’re going to need to implement soil vapor intrusion modeling. Believe us. It’s coming,” she said.

As a show of support, Brockovich introduced mothers from Flint, Michigan, to the crowd. She also advised the people of East Palestine to band together to make their voices heard.

“You start getting 50 and 100,000 pissed off moms together — I’m telling you right now: Things change,” Brockovich said.

‘This is going to be a long game’: Erin Brockovich shares insight with East Palestine

The issues surrounding East Palestine’s train derailment were passed to one of the nation’s most famous environmental activists Friday evening.

www.wkbn.com

 

[Cool Cats]

MSN

Officials in Michigan and Texas last week pushed back against the plan by Norfolk Southern to relocate some of the waste to areas in their states. Now, any relocation of the waste will have to go through the EPA for approval.

 

[Betty P]

Residents near Ohio train derailment diagnosed with ailments associated with chemical exposure, including bronchitis​

Residents near Ohio train derailment diagnosed with ailments associated with chemical exposure, including bronchitis

People near the Ohio site where a train derailed are being diagnosed with bronchitis and other issues that doctors and nurses say are linked to chemical exposure.

www.yahoo.com

Melissa Blake, who lives within a mile of the crash site in East Palestine, Ohio, said she started coughing up gray mucus and was struggling to breathe on Feb. 5, two days after the Norfolk Southern train derailed. That day she evacuated her home and also went to the emergency room, where she was diagnosed with “acute bronchitis due to chemical fumes,” according to medical records reviewed by NBC News.

“They gave me a breathing machine. They put me on oxygen. They gave me three types of steroids,” Blake said. She has yet to move back home since being discharged nearly three weeks ago.

Sadly, none of this is surprising. It's to be expected as a result of this kind of event. What's sad is that so many people tried to pretend people weren't injured. Just last week, I listened to an interview on NPR with a doctor from the area who claimed there were no people yet diagnosed with any illness from the toxic petrochemicals. A few days later, there's an interview on social media with locals who are obviously sick. Very frustrating.

 

[Betty P]

Shipments of contaminated waste to resume from Ohio train derailment site | CNN

The Environmental Protection Agency has approved resuming shipments of contaminated liquid and soil out of East Palestine, Ohio, where a train carrying toxic chemicals derailed earlier this month.

www.cnn.com

Waste shipments will resume, going to toxic waste handling facilities in Ohio. One is a toxic waste incinerator in ... E. Liverpool, OH.

 

[ifindedout]

The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) has issued a Safety Advisory on the operation and maintenance of hotbox detectors:

Safety Advisory 2023-01; Evaluation of Policies and Procedures Related to the Use and Maintenance of Hot Bearing Wayside Detectors | FRA

railroads.dot.gov

 

[Puzzles8]

Funny thing about large national freight lines, for the most part they self report on the safety of their rail lines and car safety to the government....

Railroads self-inspect track and cars as feds hamstrung by limited resources

Railroads are responsible for regularly inspecting tracks and equipment. The Federal Road Administration does inspections too, but not all the time.

sports.yahoo.com

We had an awful freight train accident in our village 10 or so years ago, two people were killed. It was the 4th of July and 102 degrees here. A long coal train was passing through. The freight rails were so overheated they started to warp. This caused a derailment over a bridge and spilled tons of coal and freight cars everywhere around the bridge. It was only after two days that they found a deceased couple trapped in their car under the collapsed bridge.

Feds: Fatal Train Derailment, Bridge Collapse Caused By Heat

The Federal Railroad Administration said it's likely that temperatures of 103 degrees last July caused train tracks to buckle, derailing a coal train, and causing the bridge it was traveling on to collapse.

www.cbsnews.com

The current problem, there were two bridges here that were identically built. The one that failed the Railroad rebuilt that bridge to epic standards to prevent any future accidents from falling onto the road. But, it's twin bridge, maybe a quarter mile away has not been touched.

IMO Railroad freight lines and cars need to be regulated directly by government.

JMO, IMO, and etc.

ETA to include another link.

 

[Betty P]

Funny thing about large national freight lines, for the most part they self report on the safety of their rail lines and car safety to the government....

Railroads self-inspect track and cars as feds hamstrung by limited resources

Railroads are responsible for regularly inspecting tracks and equipment. The Federal Road Administration does inspections too, but not all the time.

sports.yahoo.com

We had an awful freight train accident in our village 10 or so years ago, two people were killed. It was the 4th of July and 102 degrees here. A long coal train was passing through. The freight rails were so overheated they started to warp. This caused a derailment over a bridge and spilled tons of coal and freight cars everywhere around the bridge. It was only after two days that they found a deceased couple trapped in their car under the collapsed bridge.

The current problem, there were two bridges here that were identically built. The one that failed the Railroad rebuilt that bridge to epic standards to prevent any future accidents from falling onto the road. But, it's twin bridge, maybe a quarter mile away has not been touched.

IMO Railroad freight lines and cars need to be regulated directly by government.

JMO, IMO, and etc.

They are still regulated, but it appears many regulations have been relaxed. The current acceptance of highly flammable unit trains (meaning full trains of cars containing only flammable materials) makes my hair stand on end, especially on large road trains. If they're going to allow that, they need to place more restrictions requiring bigger crews, smaller train size, speed restrictions and special routing of trains where possible. Of course this drives up the rates the railroads have to charge the customers, but they'll have to deal with it. I can guarantee the pressure to relax these regs, lengthen trains and go light on inspections has been done under big pressure from customers.

Railroads need to pay attention to this advisory. They really have nothing to gain by running in such an unsafe manner. Any operating system manager knows you can only cut costs so much without having these expensive accidents.

ETA: I also like the FRA "advisory" recommending they analyze hot box data based on "real time" readings. They also need to lower the temperature threshold for triggering alarms. Yeah, it causes false alarms, but maybe they should pay attention when there's Hazmat on the train. The alarm didn't go off on the E. Palestine train until several cars were on fire! That's another problem with these super-long trains and small crews - you can't monitor the entire train for any problems. That was usually part of the job of the conductor in the caboose. From the back of the train, workers could easily look ahead and spot problems. No caboose or cab crew, no visual monitoring. IDK, maybe they've come up with a way to manage that, but it doesn't work well for journal bearing fires.

 

[Betty P]

https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/senate-bill/576?s=3&r=2

Bill introduced by Sen. Sherrod Brown, co-sponsored by Sen. JD Vance.

 

[IceIce9]

First truckloads of contaminated waste dumped in Putnam County landfill; Gov. Holcomb orders additional testing

Heritage Environmental said Wednesday the first three truckloads of waste from the Ohio train derailment have arrived at their Putnam County landfill.

www.wthr.com

The contaminated waste is being dumped in an Indiana landfill.

 

[sds71]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1631442313212772353

 

[shotgun09]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1631143378531254273

 

[Puzzles8]

First truckloads of contaminated waste dumped in Putnam County landfill; Gov. Holcomb orders additional testing

Heritage Environmental said Wednesday the first three truckloads of waste from the Ohio train derailment have arrived at their Putnam County landfill.

www.wthr.com

The contaminated waste is being dumped in an Indiana landfill.

Why is it any less dangerous at an Indiana site than it was in Ohio?

JMO

 

[Betty P]

Why is it any less dangerous at an Indiana site than it was in Ohio?

JMO

It probably depends on how the waste disposal company is set up to handle the storage of the toxic waste and how much space they have available. They’ll obviously need a lot of room, probably at many different storage companies.

I‘m not an expert, but companies operate different types of toxic waste storage and disposal sites. Some bury it underground, some inject it into underground wells, others burn it at very high temperatures. It probably depends on where NS can find a disposal site with enough capacity.

ETA: It also sounds like EPA felt the landfill in Indiana was a safer place to handle the toxic waste. There’s big money to be made in the toxic waste storage business and not every company is prepared to do it safely. It can take a long time, months or even years, to do this properly.

It also looks like some of this will be a political squabble. It has been already.

 

[IceIce9]

Roachdale resident applauds Holcomb's order for more scrutiny of landfill material

Rudy Guerro called it "a step in the right direction."

www.wthr.com

Now Indiana’s governor has stepped in.

From the article:

Wildey believes the toxic material shouldn't be coming here because of the classification and said the real threat is vinyl chloride.

"I would have called this a 'U listed' waste. The reason for that being so divisive is the only way you can get rid of a U listed waste is by incineration, which is extremely expensive," Wildey said. "This is a poster child for a U listed waste. It has not been used. It was traveling down the road. It was involved in an accident. It contaminated other materials around it."

Wildey said there's a facility closer to the train crash site that's capable of handling that kind of waste. He believes the hazardous material should go there instead.

 

[steeltowngirl]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1631716064332587011

 

[ifindedout]

NPR News: The challenges of East Palestine's toxic waste cleanup

There are thousands of facilities across the U.S., in nearly every state, that are licensed to treat, store or dispose of hazardous waste. But not all types of waste can go to every type of facility. The type of waste and nature of the contamination can dictate whether waste is shipped to landfills, water treatment facilities or incinerators, for instance.

Another consideration is politics, Sachs said. High-profile cleanup sites, like East Palestine, can raise concerns from residents of other states, prompting politicians to step in.

More than 1.2 million gallons of contaminated firefighting water were sent to Texas Molecular outside of Houston. Another 320,000 gallons were sent to U.S. Ecology Romulus in Michigan, and nearly 100,000 to a facility in Vickery, Ohio. Hundreds of tons of soil were taken to a facility in Michigan. Yet more is destined for incinerators in Grafton and East Liverpool, Ohio, and a landfill in Roachdale, Ind.

Combined, those sites do not have enough capacity to hold all of the hazardous waste from East Palestine, officials said this week, meaning they are still looking for others.

The EPA photo of the derailed cars in the article also lists each car in the picture by its position in the train consist (ironically the original defective car, ARSX 4145, is not in the picture, it derailed without piling up). Here's what their reporting marks mean:

ARSX: Aristech Chemical Corp., division of Sunoco
CERX: Carpenter Chemical Co.
COCX: Chevron Oronite Co.
DOWX: Dow Chemical Co.
GATX: GATX Corp. (originally General American Tank Car Corp.)*
LYBX: Lyondell Chemical Co.
NATX: Wells Fargo Rail (originally North American Tank Car Co.)*
NCUX: Newcourt Capital USA*
OCPX: Oxy Vinyls LP, division of Occidental Chemical Co.
RACX: GE Rail Services Corp.*
ROIX: Shintech Inc.
SHPX: American Railcar Industries*
TILX: Trinity Industries Leasing*
UTLX: Union Tank Car Co.*
XOMX: ExxonMobil Corp.

* leasing companies. In North America, tank cars are owned by leasing companies or chemical companies, never by the railroads. The letter X at the end of each reporting mark means it is not owned by a common carrier, i.e. a railroad.