Oil shippers ordered to keep emergency workers informed

Railroad companies will be required to inform state emergency management officials about the movement of large shipments of crude oil through their states, according to an emergency order made by the U.S. Department of Transportation on May 7.

The Transportation Department also urged railroad companies not to use older model tank cars that more easily rupture following derailments, even at slow speeds.

The emergency order requires that each railroad company hauling trains with more than 1 million gallons of crude oil —  about 35 tank cars — provide information on the trains’ expected movement, including frequency and county-by-county routes, to the states they traverse.

The order also requires that railroads disclose the volume of oil being transported and how emergency responders can contact “at least one responsible party” at the railroad.

BNSF Railway issued a statement saying the new order will not affect oil shipments.

“We will comply with the new reporting requirements but do not anticipate they will impact our service,” the company said. “We will continue moving the freight that our customers demand.”

Much of the crude oil being shipped by rail is coming from the booming Bakken oil fields of North Dakota, Montana and parts of Canada and is being shipped across the U.S. and Canada in trains with 100 cars or more.

Accident investigators have described these trains as “moving pipelines.” The trains travel through both small towns and big cities.

Local and state officials, fire chiefs and other emergency responders have complained about not having information on the contents of freight trains moving through communities or their schedules. They also say they have not been able to get railroad companies to provide that information.

The Transportation Department also issued a safety advisory urging shippers to use the most protective type of tank car in their fleets when shipping oil from the Bakken region.

The order recommended that, to the extent possible, shippers should not use older model tank cars known as DOT-111s. Accident investigators report those tank cars have ruptured or punctured, spilling their contents, even in accidents that occurred at speeds under 30 mph.

The tank cars are generally owned by or leased to oil companies that ship the crude, not the railroads.

The emergency order follows a warning two weeks ago from outgoing National Transportation Safety Board chairwoman Deborah Hersman. She warned about a “higher body count” will result from fiery oil train accidents if the the board waits for new safety regulations to become final.

Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx announced the emergency order at a May 7 Senate committee hearing. He said the department was moving as fast as possible to develop new safety regulations for crude oil shipments.

Foxx also said the department sent a proposal last week to the White House that included new tank car standards and regulations on train speeds, and the safety classification of oil based on its volatility. He said he anticipated final regulations before the end of the year.

Unlike the emergency order, the safety advisory on tank cars is voluntary, Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash, said. Noting that oil trains move through “every major city it in the Northwest ... hitting every urban center in our state,” Cantwell pressed Foxx to move even faster on tougher tank-car standards that would have the force of law.

The American Petroleum Institute said in a statement that oil companies hope within the next year to increase to 60 percent the share of tank cars that meet a stronger, voluntary standard agreed to by shippers and railroads in 2011.

The NTSB, however, has said cars that meet the voluntary standard still puncture and rupture in accidents, and freight railroads have recommended further improvements.

Ron Ness president of the North Dakota Petroleum Council, representing more than 500 companies in the Bakken oil region, responded on May 8 by saying crude oil from the Bakken is being unfairly targeted by regulators.

“We’re still in a kind of amazement that they singled out Bakken crude,” he said. “We believe Bakken crude is a superior crude and can be shipped by rail just like ethanol, gasoline, diesel and other crude oils.”

Ness said his group commissioned an independent study of the characteristics of crude oil from the Bakken fields.

“We’re hoping to share that information with the Department of Transportation and come up with a practical, scientific solution because right now the only solution appears to be a political solution,” Ness said.