Preparing for Bakken oil trains

Black oil tanker cars, one after another, stretching as far as the eye can see — it’s a common sight along the edge of Glacier National Park these days.

On average, one trainload of crude oil per day is shipped west via BNSF Railway’s Hi-Line route, along the southern boundary of Glacier Park, through Columbia Falls and Whitefish, and along the west shore of Whitefish Lake. A significant amount of that crude originates from the booming Bakken oil fields of North Dakota and eastern Montana.

While BNSF says “99.99 percent” of their hazardous shipments are delivered without incident, there is growing public concern about trains, sometimes more than 100 cars long, carrying highly flammable Bakken crude on tracks where derailments are all too common.

Fiery crashes

In the past year alone, there have been three fiery explosions involving trainloads of Bakken crude.

On Dec. 30, a train hauling 106 tank cars of Bakken crude exploded outside Casselton, N.D., when it collided with a derailed train carrying grain. On Nov. 8, 2013, there was another fiery explosion involving Bakken crude on a train in rural Alabama.

Most alarming was a derailment on July 6, 2013, in downtown Lac Megantic, Quebec, that left 47 residents dead. The Bakken crude from that derailment burned for four days in Canada’s worst train disaster.

“This stuff is more dangerous than typical oil,” Whitefish fire chief Tom Kennelly said of Bakken crude. “The flammability is different.”

The U.S. Department of Transportation issued a warning on Jan. 2 stating that Bakken’s light, sweet crude oil may be different from traditional heavy crudes because it’s prone to ignite at a lower temperature.

Experts say lighter crudes, which contain more natural gas, have a much lower “flash point.” The flash point is the lowest temperature at which a substance can vaporize to form an ignitable mixture in air.

Local training

Last fall, firefighters from across Flathead County trained with BNSF crews in Whitefish in a rail car disaster simulation based on Bakken crude.

“It was an eye-opener,” Columbia Falls fire chief Rick Hagen said of the training. “Bakken crude is closer to gasoline than to diesel fuel.”

If a derailment occurs near Columbia Falls, Whitefish or Glacier Park, the state of Montana, Flathead County and BNSF would take the lead for response and cleanup efforts, according to Lincoln Chute, fire service area manager for Flathead County’s Office of Emergency Services.

Both Chute and Hagen say if a tanker catches fire, the first order of business is not putting out the flames — it’s getting people away. In nearly all cases, it’s better to let a fire like that simply burn out, Hagen said. Extingushing the flames would only allow more vapors to escape uncontrolled into the atmosphere, and uncontrolled vapors pose an even greater fire and health risk.

“The vapors are more dangerous than a fire,” Hagen said.

Kennelly said an evacuation might be challenging in the resort town of Whitefish where BNSF’s tracks run through the heart of downtown.

“A normal resident knows the railroad is there, and they’d know to head down Highway 93,” Kennelly said. “But we have a lot of tourists and guests who don’t know that.”

Big spills

Kennelly said a big concern is losing a tanker car in Whitefish Lake, not unlike the derailment in 1989 when 20,000 gallons of diesel fuel spilled into Mackinaw Bay.

“The worst thing would be an accident at the north end of the lake where you don’t have access and then you also have a wildfire,” Kennelly said. “These can build to be devastating events.”

Kennelly said his department is far more prepared now than it was in the 1980s for a derailment around the lake.

“In the ‘80s, we had to borrow a boom and search for boats,” he said. “The department has grown since then. We are aware of where BNSF keeps their booms. We have three boats in our fleet and the hovercraft for winter.”

Access to the GEAR rescue helicopter would be a significant help as well, Kennelly said.

“To be able to get up above scene, it’s a lot easier to see what’s happening,” he said.

The department is constantly studying and preparing for response to hazardous spills, Kennelly said.

“It’s always on our priorities,” he said. “There’s not one of us who doesn’t drive over the tracks and look down and see [the oil tank cars] there. The community has to know hazardous material is high on our training list. We have plans for it, and we practice.”

Chute also notes that all the training by BNSF together with local fire departments across the Flathead has built strong relationships over the years. First responders know each other well and know who to contact in event of an emergency, he said.

Disaster planning

BNSF spokesman Matt Jones says the rail company provides response training to more than 3,000 emergency responders each year, including a hazardous training session with crews from Whitefish, Coram and Glacier Park last fall.

BNSF has also developed a site-specific response plan to be used by emergency responders in the corridor from Glacier Park to Whitefish. The plan currently is in draft form and is expected to be finalized in the next few months.

The threat of a derailment hasn’t gone unnoticed by the National Park Service or the Forest Service. Both agencies say they continue to train with and offer support for local emergency services. In December, the agencies met with BNSF officials as well, Glacier Park spokeswoman Denise Germann said.

In the past, federal, state and local agencies joined public interest groups on an annual basis in the Great Northern Environmental Stewardship Area meetings. Germann said there has been renewed interest in restarting those meetings.

A large incident — a spill into a lake or river, along with a fire —would likely be overseen by a professional federal incident management team like those that oversee major wildfires, Hagen said.

Derailments in the local BNSF corridor are not uncommon — especially from Marias Pass to Bad Rock Canyon. The last derailment occurred this fall when five freight cars went off the tracks near Essex.

Last winter, four BNSF locomotives and a car with three cargo containers derailed as they pulled onto a siding just west of West Glacier. And in March 2011, a freight train derailed near Essex, leaving 19 cars off the tracks. Aerial photos from that incident showed two tanker cars just a couple links away from being tipped over.

Hagen notes that railroad tanker cars are built for safety, but accidents can happen. Response to a tanker explosion like the one in North Dakota would be a major undertaking, he said.

“It doesn’t matter how much you train,” Hagen noted. “It’s going to be a big disaster.”