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News Philly: You Run by Flammable Oil Trains Often

Let’s consider a hypothetical situation: Would you run through a minefield for a casual jog?

Now let’s consider this question: Do you recognize the trains in this photo?

You may recognize the above photo as those cute little gardens, with the Schuylkill River trail overlooking these trains. You’re not alone if you couldn’t tell that these trains actually carry crude oil. But this oil is unstable and highly flammable, as Clean Water Action explains.

Every day, trains carrying 160,000 barrels of crude oil travel through Philadelphia for refining in South Philadelphia.

We asked Clean Water Action’s Program Organizer Michael Roles why there’s such a mystery around these common sightings. As Roles explained,

Oil train traffic has increased so quickly, that people haven’t had the time to assess its risks, and governments & industry must do a better job about communicating with the public & preparing for a possible emergency.

Just this morning, a train with 109 tankers of crude oil derailed in West Virginia, threatening a town’s water supply and evaluating hundreds of families. This is just one of several incidents in recent times. As Roles explained,

We’ve seen 12 significant derailments of crude oil trains over the last 18 months. What happened in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec is the most memorable derailment; 47 residents were killed and 5 acres downtown were destroyed.

PHilLy Oil Trains: Danger Closer than you think

A few oil train derailments have hit Philly lately. On January 31st, a CSX freight train traveling from Chicago to PHL had 11 tank cars containing crude oil came off the tracks. Luckily, there were no injuries or chemical spills.

Yet just a year prior, a 101-car CSX freight train derailed over the Schuylkill River, with two cars dangling over the river. This incident also dodged injuries and chemical leaks.

How much more of our city’s (and river’s) luck can we push? As Roles explained,

Think about how many people in Philadelphia are living within that size of a radius around the tracks of South Philly, the Schuylkill River, North Philly, West Philly, and so on. Consider the sensitive infrastructure that exists near these tracks, like the hospitals, the schools, the museums, the universities, the parks. Philadelphia has gotten lucky with 2 partial derailments that occurred in January 2014 and last month. Those cars did not fall off the tracks, but the images from 2014 of the tank car dangling over the Schuylkill River are burned in my memory. Is Philadelphia waiting for one to result in an explosion before it springs into action? Unfortunately, Philadelphia’s Office of Emergency Management has admitted that no new preparations have been made, related to a crude-by-rail emergency. We think they can do better.

Philadelphia as an Energy Hub

There’s much talk about Philadelphia becoming an “energy hub” for natural gas processing, after the Marcellus Shale has been tapped by fracking. But regardless of how many regulations there are, it’s impossible to be 100% safe or foolproof.

This is on top of the fact that we have too much carbon in available right now versus our atmosphere’s threshold. As Richard Whiteford explains in his whitepaper,

We’re pumping 90 million tons of CO 2 into the atmosphere every 24 hours that stays in the atmosphere for over a hundred years. This has increased CO 2 levels from an 800,000 year average of 280 parts per million to todays 400 parts per million and raised the planetary average temperature by 0.8 degrees Celsius (1. 4 degrees Fahrenheit).

Read the rest of the paper online at the Journal of Earth Science & Climatic Change.

Keeping tabs on Philly’s sustainability (or lack thereof) is one reason why it’s crucial to watch the 2015 mayoral elections.

So what should we demand as citizens? Roles believes this is an outdated model for Pennsylvania’s needs.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has stated that the majority of the tank cars that are used for this type of transportation can be expected to breach in the event of a derailment. In our office, we call them the Ford Pintos of tank cars. There is an opportunity to forever rid our communities of this type of tank car.

You can also sign a petition to Philadelphia City Council to take action now.

Readers, were you aware of the Crude Oil trains? What do you think should happen? Tell us in the comments.

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Julie Hancher is Editor-in-Chief of Green Philly, sharing her expertise of all things sustainable in the city of brotherly love. She enjoys long walks in the park with local beer and greening her travels, cooking & cat, Sir Floofus Drake. View all posts by Julie Hancher