April 16, 2015
By Curtis Tate
WASHINGTON — Outlet valves underneath four tank cars (click here) in a February oil train derailment in West Virginia were sheared off and the 50,000 gallons of crude oil they released ignited in a fire that subsequently caused several nearby rail cars to explode, according to a federal report.
The report also identified the initial cause of the Feb. 16 derailment in Mount Carbon, W.Va., as a broken rail on track owned and maintained by CSX and said more than 362,000 gallons of crude oil were released. The fires and explosions from the derailment kept 300 residents away from their homes.
The report, which appeared Thursday in the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration’s hazardous materials incident database, highlights another issue with the design of the tank cars used to carry crude oil and their ability to resist damage from derailments and fire exposure.
When I made comment to the State Department and US Transportation Department I stated the tar sands mixture would be very hard on train infrastructure. This is a prime example of how corrosive this product is to infrastructure. The lousy stuff doesn't belong anywhere in rail cars. Pipelines carrying this product have also been eroding quicker than the government's assessment. Naphtha is not simply highly explosive, it is highly corrosive.
The Mount Carbon derailment was one of four oil train derailments since the beginning of the year that resulted in large fires. On March 5, an oil train operated by BNSF derailed near Galena, Ill. Two other oil trains derailed in Ontario on Canadian National, one in February and one in March....
There is no containing it. This product is extremely dangerous, won't allow infrastructure it's integrity and has no place in this world.
By Curtis Tate
WASHINGTON — Outlet valves underneath four tank cars (click here) in a February oil train derailment in West Virginia were sheared off and the 50,000 gallons of crude oil they released ignited in a fire that subsequently caused several nearby rail cars to explode, according to a federal report.
The report also identified the initial cause of the Feb. 16 derailment in Mount Carbon, W.Va., as a broken rail on track owned and maintained by CSX and said more than 362,000 gallons of crude oil were released. The fires and explosions from the derailment kept 300 residents away from their homes.
The report, which appeared Thursday in the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration’s hazardous materials incident database, highlights another issue with the design of the tank cars used to carry crude oil and their ability to resist damage from derailments and fire exposure.
When I made comment to the State Department and US Transportation Department I stated the tar sands mixture would be very hard on train infrastructure. This is a prime example of how corrosive this product is to infrastructure. The lousy stuff doesn't belong anywhere in rail cars. Pipelines carrying this product have also been eroding quicker than the government's assessment. Naphtha is not simply highly explosive, it is highly corrosive.
The Mount Carbon derailment was one of four oil train derailments since the beginning of the year that resulted in large fires. On March 5, an oil train operated by BNSF derailed near Galena, Ill. Two other oil trains derailed in Ontario on Canadian National, one in February and one in March....
There is no containing it. This product is extremely dangerous, won't allow infrastructure it's integrity and has no place in this world.
