Md. lawmakers call for crude oil risk assessment, more railroad transparency

[NS Newsfeed]

State lawmakers concerned about increasingly common rail shipments of crude oil through Maryland are calling for the state to conduct a full assessment of the risks and for railroads to be more transparent about their operations.



Both CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern bring trainloads of crude oil into the state, including to a barge terminal in South Baltimore's Fairfield area and through Cecil County en route to refineries in Delaware.



Legislation filed last week in Annapolis — just days before a CSX crude oil train derailed and exploded in West Virginia — would require the state's health and environment departments to establish statewide accident prevention, emergency response and contingency plans in the case of a major railroad disaster involving crude oil. It also would require both railroads to disclose more information about their crude shipments to the public.



"Unfortunately I think this is a matter of 'when' such an accident might occur, not just a matter of 'if,'" said Del. Clarence K. Lam, a Democrat who represents parts of Baltimore and Howard counties and the bill's lead sponsor. "I want to make sure state agencies and local emergency responders are ready."



Lam, a Johns Hopkins physician, said the bill is also an attempt to provide residents with more information about oil shipments, particularly those involving crude from the Bakken field of North Dakota.



"It's important for the public to know when their safety could potentially be put at risk," Lam said. "This is really part and parcel of proper public disclosure for residents who might be living near these rail lines."



Under a federal law that took effect in May, railroads are required to disclose to local jurisdictions the volumes, routes and frequency of all Bakken crude oil shipments of more than 1 million gallons, but much of that information is unavailable to the public in Maryland.



Last year, both Norfolk Southern and CSX sued the Maryland Department of the Environment to prevent the agency from disclosing the information to several media companies, including The Baltimore Sun, that had requested it through the state's Public Information Act. Pretrial conferences in both cases are scheduled for next month, with trials scheduled in April.



Rob Doolittle, a CSX spokesman, said that safety is the company's "highest priority," and that it already has and is committed to maintaining its "history of sharing information about the transportation of hazardous materials, including crude oil, with the communities where we operate."



He said CSX will "review the proposed legislation and comment as appropriate through the legislative process," but that the company believes information about hazardous material shipments "is security-sensitive" and "most useful in the hands of first responders and emergency planning agencies that are responsible for protecting the public's safety."



Dave Pidgeon, a Norfolk Southern spokesman, echoed Doolittle's thoughts about safety and communication and training with local emergency responders. He also said rail accidents involving hazardous materials are "the exception to the rule, not the norm," with most shipments occurring without incident.



Lam's bill follows several disasters involving crude oil shipments in North America, where a crude oil production boom has increased demand for its transport by rail. The volatile Bakken crude, often kept under pressure, has exploded in several accidents.



In 2013, a derailment devastated a small Canadian town, killing 47 people. Another last year polluted the James River and caused the evacuation of downtown Lynchburg, Va.



Lam called Monday's derailment of a CSX crude oil train during a snowstorm in West Virginia — which burned one home to the ground, forced hundreds of others to be evacuated, shuttered water treatment plants and sparked concern about pollution to the nearby Kanawha River — "another alarm bell."



He said it and other accidents prove concerns about crude oil "are not just hypothetical," despite railroads' reassurances about safety, and should be addressed locally even as the Federal Railroad Administration implements stiffer regulations on everything from railway speed limits to tank-car designs.



Beyond derailments and explosions, Lam said not enough is known about the danger of emissions from such transports. Such emissions recently have been a concern in Fairfield, where one company already handles crude oil and another has applied for an air permit to start.



"It does have an effect on the health and well-being of a community even without an accident," Lam said.



His bill had 17 co-sponsors as of Wednesday, all Democrats except one: Del. Susan K. McComas, a Republican from Harford County, who said crude oil shipments are "an important issue to investigate and review."



"Many of my constituents are first responders or commuters who travel the roads that parallel the rail lines, and my first priority is the public's safety and well-being," she said in a statement to The Sun.

McComas said she hopes the bill is not "considered a controversial issue," but a step toward "being proactive rather than reactive, and working to protect public health and safety."



Environmental groups that have been vocal in recent months about their opposition to crude oil operations in Maryland — especially near the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries — hailed the bill as a step in the right direction.



"The public should know when this stuff is coming through their backyards," said Jon Kenney, the Maryland community organizer for the Chesapeake Climate Action Network. "There are plenty of hazardous materials that run through places like Baltimore, but nothing as secretive as crude oil."



Lam said the bill does not seek to curtail crude oil shipments through the state, but to collect information so the state can ensure its preparations for potential disasters are appropriate.



As written, the bill would only explicitly require railroads operating in the state to disclose the volumes of their crude oil shipments, but Lam said his intention is for them to disclose shipment volumes, routes and frequencies.



A hearing on the bill is scheduled for March 11.