Phil Drake

pdrake@greatfallstribune.com

For Chris Dschaak, it’s not a matter of if, but when.

The Wolf Point mayor said he doesn’t know when his community of 2,700 — where as many as 48 trains roll through town daily carrying goods such as crude oil, diapers and ammonia — will need a hazardous materials unit, but knows the nearest one is probably four to six hours away.

He also serves as a captain on the city’s volunteer fire department and said they do train for such emergencies, but added they are still not 100 percent ready.

Roosevelt County Commissioner Gary MacDonald also worries as locomotives roll through town.

“Every time I see a train I think, ‘C’mon, keep going,’” he said.

An October audit on railroad safety by the state’s Legislative Audit Division noted that Montana, a state of 147,000 square miles, has six hazardous materials units with none east of Great Falls or Billings. Other units are stationed in Helena, Bozeman, Missoula and Kalispell.

Of Montana’s 27 counties with active rail lines, 22 are totally or mostly dependent on a regional team to respond to any large hazardous material event. While the average time for a team to respond is four to six hours, it could take as many as 12 hours in the northeastern part of the state.

Hazardous materials teams, also called hazmat, are specially trained to handle hazardous materials such as combustibles, explosives and radioactive and toxic substances. The website Safeopedia says that hazmat teams respond “to all oil, chemical and other liquid spills, industrial and military explosions and accidents during transportation.”

The audit included the Department of Military Affairs, which oversees the Department of Disaster and Emergency Services, the Public Service Commission and the Department of Transportation in its review.

It found the majority of volunteer firefighters do not have hazmat training and have little time to do so. There are a lack of volunteers or a “graying” of volunteers, meaning members are getting older.

Departments also have a lack of personal protective equipment, with southcentral Montana topping the list with 72 percent of its departments having adequate equipment; western Montana was second with 70 percent; northwest Montana had 65 percent; northcentral and eastern Montana had 50 percent and northeast Montana had 25 percent.

“The east is at risk,” said Rep. Bridget Smith, D-Wolf Point. “But you know what, we have always been at risk.”

Smith said that should a hazardous materials team be needed in her community, it would likely come from Billings, which she said is 300 miles, about five hours away. Great Falls is 320 miles.

Culbertson Mayor Gordon Oelkers said his town is doing some planning for any hazmat situation.

“It is a major concern,” he said.

Last year there was a crude oil leak, but no fire, when a train derailed about five miles east of Culbertson, he said. Four tank cars spilled an estimated 35,000 gallons of oil July 17.

“It was as good as it could have been,” he said, adding there were rare train derailments in the past, but they were always carrying lumber or cars.

“Now we have hazardous materials on trains that we never had before.”

He credits the volunteer fire department for doing “a tremendous job.”

The audit, which also looked at the Public Service Commission, Department of Transportation and their roles with rail safety, noted there were efforts to set up a hazmat unit in northeastern Montana, but there was a lack of equipped and trained firefighters in the region and a lack of a full-time fire department to host such a team.

Lee Allmer, the head of the Local Emergency Planning Commission in Wolf Point, said he has had talks with people about how certain frontier areas have a lack of hazmat ability, “But that doesn’t mean our local fire departments are not able to respond to some of the emergencies.”

“The big thing about a hazmat team is, it takes training,” he said, adding it can be difficult for volunteer departments with firefighters who have jobs during the day.

He said the big question is where would a regional unit be located and who would pay for it?

“Is it viable for our county or cities in this area to pay for a fully funded or capable hazmat team?” he asks. “Would you stage it in Sidney, Glendive or Wolf Point?

“Who would pay for the new building?”

He said there have been talks with the Government Accountability Office and the U.S. House of Representatives.

“It’s not that we lack the heart or ability to do some of the things in our area, it’s that we lack the resources,” he said.

“Firefighters would love to have the resources,” he said. “But it goes back to cost-benefit analysis. Does it make sense to stage a team here, because someone is going to have to pay for it.”

Harold Blattie, executive director of the Montana Association of Counties, said his agency is not taking a lead effort on getting a hazmat team for eastern Montana. He said he does not hear about it from members.

“There is a glaring hole in northeast Montana,” he said. “It’s unfortunate but rural areas rely more on urban areas that have hazmat teams. All their capacity allows them to do is to secure the area and wait for the cavalry to show up.”

Officials with the state’s Department of Disaster and Emergency Services said standards for hazmat teams are set by the State Emergency Response Commission through federal and national fire protection association guidelines.

DES officials said the basic standard for a hazmat team is six technicians who train and use the same equipment, which allows multiple teams to respond and share equipment. They said the teams meet quarterly and discuss training and equipment needs.

There are no plans to add a seventh team in eastern Montana.

The DES has six district field officers distributed geographically throughout the state with each assigned about 10 counties and tribal nations, said Maj. Chris Lende, chief of public affairs with the Montana National Guard. They provide technical assistance with emergency management, including reviewing plans, assisting with training and working with county or tribal emergency coordinators. It also helps All-Hazards Incident Management Teams, which are a mix of personnel from the local emergency units and are used in managing larger incidents.

While the state does not “own” the six hazmat teams – they are with the various fire departments – it does disperse about $265,000 a year among the six teams to help with such things as equipment replacement and training.

The Department of Transportation also helps through a Hazardous Materials Emergency Preparedness Grant, which is administered through the DES. These teams receive specialized training in hazmat situations and can be deployed or respond outside their jurisdiction.

State officials said community responders have plans to provide any initial mitigation to any hazmat incident.

The audit noted that according to a survey, 97 percent have an all-hazards plan, 50 percent had addressed a rail incident with hazmat and 50 percent had exercised their plan.

Local responders are trained to provide help and initial mitigation in any hazmat situation, DES officials said.

There are 381 fire departments in the state with about 10,000 firefighters. Of those, 96 percent are volunteers. There are 12 full-salaried fire departments protecting 347,000 people and 336 volunteer departments protecting 366,000 people and 33 with salaried and volunteer members protecting 302,000 people.

Nearly 20 percent of the state’s population, 183,047, live in evacuation zones (one-half mile) for an oil train derailment along 3,368 miles of track, the audit noted. It stated that included 47 hospitals/medical centers, 169 fire stations and 353 schools.

From 2010-2014, Montana ranked 21st in the U.S. for train incidents with 177 reported during that time period. Total damages were $43.3 million and cost per incident was $246,100. The largest number of incidents (6-10) were in Yellowstone County, according the the state audit.

The transport of oil grew substantially from 2008 to 2014, the audit noted. In 2008, there were 9,500 carloads of crude oil. In 2013, there were 407,761 and in the first half of 2014 there were 229,798. Even though the oil boom has eased, the audit notes the oil shipments are above the 2008 numbers.

State officials noted the railroad companies also have hazmat response teams that can respond and train frequently with state and local hazmat teams.

In a December filing with the Montana Public Service Commission, which was holding a hearing on railroad safety, BNSF submitted a response that noted it has a multi-layered system to reduce risks.

BNSF said that in the last five years, it has provided emergency response training to 725 Montana first responders, with many of them from eastern Montana. The company says it has discussed emergency response and safety procedures with local officials. BNSF has also helped communities develop and evaluate their emergency response plans.

It also noted that since 2013, it has staged 12 spill containment trailers and 27 firefighting foam trailers at key locations along Montana’s rail lines. The company said it has more than 250 hazmat responders and equipment at 60 locations, including Chester, Glendive, Great Falls, Helena, Havre and Whitefish.

The company said it had reduced accidents by 40 percent since 2015. BNSF has 44 full-time track inspectors in Montana with most key routes inspected four times a week, and busiest main lines are inspected daily. The company states it has a list providing the location of the hazardous materials in the train. And that list can be provided to local authorities upon request. They also have an AskRail app that gives first responders the type of hazardous material a rail car is carrying.

MacDonald, the Roosevelt County commissioner, credits BNSF for keeping the tracks well maintained.

“I wouldn’t call it luck,” he said. “They are keeping the tracks in good shape and it’s almost a straight run ... they cannot control what the weather can do with the tracks.”

Allmer said the county may not have the resources, but it does have very good people on its emergency response teams.

“I’m proud of everything they have accomplished,” he said.

But he does say there is some advantage to losing five to six hours of drive time and having supervisors on the scene quicker.

He said the Culbertson fire chief did a very good job in the July train derailment near his town. “He did everything that needed to be done, but things may have been different if a true fire had been involved.

“Each incident is a different beast. Each will bring different challenges.”

And while work may have eased in the Bakken oil fields, he said the oil train cars still roll through Wolf Point frequently. Allmer said Roosevelt County has the most oil traffic in the state.

“In Wolf Point we understand the danger of the Bakken crude,” he said, noting it is less than a quarter-mile from the train tracks to the front door of the high school.

“You could have a bad situation,” Allmer said.

And it’s not just oil when it comes to derailments.

“The grain train is a lifeline here in eastern Montana,” he said.

Dschaak said he hopes someday that a hazmat team will be located closer to Wolf Point, but remains a realist.

“I think it would be one more tool in the arsenal we have,” he said. “I don’t think having a hazmat team will make an incident or not make an incident. It’s just another tool we have to prepare and fight. We won’t look at (an incident) and say ‘Oh crap, we do not have a hazmat team, what do we do?’ We prepare for the stuff that we can do locally without a hazmat.”

To know more

To read the Rail Safety audit, go to http://1.usa.gov/1VEhm4v.

To read about Montana’s hazardous materials teams, go to http://montanahazmat.org/teams.php.

PSC to come up with safety plan

Montana’s Public Service Commission hopes to come up with a rail safety plan within six months after a report criticized the agency for having never written one, even as the train traffic carrying volatile crude from the Bakken oil patch has increased.

The commissioners voted unanimously Tuesday to complete a risk assessment and safety plan by November, which would give them enough time to request money from the 2017 Legislature to hire more inspectors, if necessary.

The Public Service Commission partners with the Federal Railroad Administration in overseeing rail lines in Montana. The U.S. government has jurisdiction over railroad safety, but the state voluntarily participates in sharing the oversight.

The federal agency has three inspectors whose territory includes Montana, and the railway companies operating in the state also employ their own inspectors.

— Associated Press