The National Transportation Safety Board has launched an investigation of a freight train derailment in Lynchburg that destroyed three oil tanker cars, lifted a plume of black smoke into the sky and spilled thousands of gallons of crude oil into the James River.
No one was killed or injured when more than a dozen CSX tanker cars derailed on Wednesday afternoon, but the resulting fire and spill prompted City Manager Kimball Payne to declare an emergency and temporarily evacuate part of downtown.
The spill also prompted Richmond utility officials to prepare to possibly switch to an alternative source for the city’s drinking water supply, which depends primarily on the James. With the river at flood stage, that isn’t likely, said city officials, who plan to use booms to capture any oil nearing the treatment plant.
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The incident also cast a bright light on the rapidly expanding rail transport of crude oil from the Upper Plains through Virginia — and downtown Richmond — to terminals and refineries in the Northeast, raising safety and environmental concerns all along the way.
“It’s difficult to get Virginia to pay attention to this because they don’t think of their being part of the oil patch, but now they are,” said Fred Millar, an Arlington County-based consultant on hazardous materials safety who has warned Virginia officials of potential dangers from the transport of crude oil across the state.
“Virginia is being used as a transportation corridor only,” Millar said. “We get all of the risks and no benefits.”
Trip Pollard, senior attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center, said the rail shipments go through “heavily populated and environmentally sensitive areas in Virginia.”
“We are way behind the curve in assessing the wisdom of such shipments and in preparing to address the potential hazards,” Pollard said.
The National Transportation Safety Board, which dispatched a team of investigators to Lynchburg late Wednesday, also has called for greater attention to safety issues related to the boom in rail transport of oil and ethanol from the Upper Plains and Midwest.
“While the soaring volumes of crude oil and ethanol traveling by rail (have) been good for business, there is a corresponding obligation to protect our communities and our environment,” said Deborah A.P. Hersman, who completed her term as chairman of the NTSB last week.
Among other incidents in the U.S. and Canada, 47 people were killed and numerous buildings destroyed in a runaway derailment and fire at Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, last year.
Speaking at a safety forum last week, Hersman called for immediate steps to protect the public from potentially catastrophic oil train accidents even if it means using emergency authority.
Hersman said there isn’t time to wait for the cumbersome federal rule-making process. “There is a very high risk here that hasn’t been addressed,” she said.
Concerns are not confined to rail transport. The Chesapeake Bay Foundation asked the U.S. Coast Guard a month ago to consider the potential for oil spills in the estuary from barge shipments from a transfer terminal in Yorktown. The terminal, owned by Houston-based Plains All American Pipeline, is expected to eventually receive up to 800 trains each year that carry up to 65,000 barrels of oil per train, according to the environmental organization.
The train that derailed Wednesday in Lynchburg was traveling from Chicago on a CSX track that runs through Lynchburg and downtown Richmond to the Peninsula, where the Yorktown terminal, formerly an Amoco refinery, is located.
Lynchburg officials said 12 to 14 tanker cars derailed near the city’s downtown about 2 p.m. Three of the cars tumbled into the James River and caught fire, spilling or burning an estimated 50,000 gallons of oil, the city said.
Reports conflicted over damage to the cars and the loss of oil from them. Lynchburg spokeswoman Joann Martin said that one tanker car was empty, another one-third full, and the other completely full, but a state environmental official said two of the cars remained intact.
“Oil was only lost from one tanker,” said David K. Paylor, director of the state Department of Environmental Quality.
“I don’t want minimize this event,” Paylor said. “This is a pretty tragic event, and we’re going to take it very seriously and make sure we are on top of any environmental effects that there might be and any human health concerns that need to be addressed.”
A crew was putting a boom in the rain-swollen James in an effort to manage the spill, Paylor said.
Lynchburg officials said a team of CSX hazardous materials experts were expected to clean up the site of the derailment today.
The railroad company, based in Jacksonville, Fla., said Wednesday it “is responding fully” to the incident and sending emergency response workers and safety and environmental experts, and community support teams to Lynchburg.
“We are committed to fully supporting the emergency responders and other agencies, meeting the needs of the community and protecting the environment,” CSX said in a statement.
A state hazardous materials official was at the scene of the derailment on Wednesday and teams from Danville and the Roanoke Valley also traveled to Lynchburg.
Gov. Terry McAuliffe instructed state agencies “to coordinate with local responders and mobilize the resources necessary to respond to this incident.”
McAuliffe said he had also spoken with Lynchburg Mayor Michael Gillette and offered him “any and all resources he needs to respond to this incident and keep Virginians safe.”
The oil in the James should not pose a threat to drinking water, said John Aulbach, director of the Virginia Department of Health’s drinking water office.
The spill is below Lynchburg’s drinking water intake and more than 120 miles upriver from the Richmond area, said Aulbach, who estimated it would take up to four days for oil to reach this region.
“It’s not going to have an impact on our water plants here,” he said.
Richmond utility officials are taking no chance with the potential arrival of oil as early as today because of the swollen, swiftly flowing James.
“We’re estimating it will be here sometime … before (Thursday) morning at sunrise,” said Robert C. Steidel, director of public utilities.
Steidel said Richmond is prepared to use Tuckahoe Creek as an alternative water source, but does not expect to do so.
“Our plan is to continue to use the water off the James River,” he said. “The James River is at flood stage right now. There’s a lot of water moving through the river, and we anticipate what isn’t caught upstream is going to move very quickly down the river and then move past the intake to the water plant.”
Richmond also will put absorbent booms on the river surface to capture any oil that approaches the intake canal to the city treatment plan, and also test the water downstream.
“We’re going to remove it all. … We’re not going to accept any oil,” Steidel said.
Henrico and Chesterfield county officials said their water supplies would not be affected.
Chesterfield has physically isolated its supply of drinking water from Richmond and will provide water service to county residents from its two other water sources, Swift Creek Reservoir and Lake Chesdin.
Henrico officials said they are monitoring the spill and are filling water storage tanks as a precaution, but don’t expect the oil to enter the county’s supply.
“Our intake is very deep in the river, and if it’s crude oil floating down on top, even if it does come, it shouldn’t concern us,” said William Mawyer, the assistant director of the county’s public utilities.
But the incident still alarmed environmental advocates, including Pat Calvert, the river-keeper — or citizen monitor — for the upper James.
“The first report I received from a citizen was that the river’s on fire,” said Calvert, who traveled to Lynchburg to take water samples and look for fish kills or other signs of ecological effects.
Calvert said the incident should alert people to the potential safety and environmental hazards of trains that carry flammable or toxic cargo.
“We need to start a larger discussion on what is appropriate for us to be transporting by rail,” he said.
William C. Baker, president of the bay foundation, asked the Coast Guard for such a discussion in a letter on March 31. He urged creation of a work group to assess the potential for an oil spill in the Chesapeake Bay, an assessment of readiness to respond to a spill, and an open dialogue with the public.
“Now is the time to prepare and ensure we are ready, not after a spill occurs,” Baker wrote.