Explosive crude oil from North Dakota may be rolling through your backyard

The same crudeoil that has been part of several fiery train accidents, including a derailment in Quebec last summer that killed 47 people in the middle of the night, is now traveling quietly through the Hudson Valley on its way to refineries along the East Coast and in Canada.

More than 5 billion gallons of Bakken crude from North Dakota could pass through the region each year — with more to come.

Whether it’s hauled through Rockland County by hundred-car trains on CSX’s River Line, or by barge or tanker on the Hudson River, that volatile cargo has raised the specter of a massive fireball in backyards in Haverstraw or a suffocating slick coating wetlands, birds and fish.

People living near the train tracks have long known that potentially dangerous materials of all kinds move by in boxcars, hoppers and tank cars. But many are surprised to learn that the highly volatile Bakken crude is now rolling through such a densely populated corridor as Rockland.

Gus Luzbet has lived by the River Line since 2005 but had no idea so much crude oil was moving past his Congers home on a daily basis. The 43-year-old father of three said officials need to make more information — including contingency and evacuation plans — available to the public.

“If you’re in the middle of nowhere, it’s one thing,” said Luzbet, who manages maritime trade and has done business using rail. “But when you’re coming through a town full of people and children, it’s a different story.”

Some emergency services officials and environmental watchdogs also worry the region isn’t prepared to be part of the nation’s surging oil industry.

Bakken oil is more hazardous because its vapors can ignite at lower temperatures than common crude. Adding to the worry, many of the rail cars carrying the oil have well-known design flaws and were not intended to carry flammable materials, officials say.

“People have ... likened it to jet fuel,” said Peter Iwanowicz, executive director of Environmental Advocates of New York and former acting commissioner of the state Department of Environmental Conservation. “With more oil being shipped much more frequently in the Hudson Valley, we need to develop a much better response network for dealing with spills and accidents.”

Old pathways, new concerns

The Hudson and the rail line along its west shore have long been a highway for commerce.

But as recently as 2009, however, almost no Bakken crude oil traveled through Rockland by rail, and it wasn’t until 2012 that oil was sent downriver from Albany. The change is because of the nation’s success in increasing oil output. In October, the U.S. produced more oil than it imported for the first time in almost 20 years, according to the International Energy Agency. The domestic boom is bumping up against a lack of pipeline capacity — which is where trains and waterways come in.

“Once you get the product out of the ground ... you ultimately need to get it to market fairly quickly,” said Greg Haas, an analyst with Texas-based Hart Energy.

Today, two oil trains with 80 to 100 tank cars filled with millions of gallons of Bakken crude travel daily through Rockland, within sight of many neighborhoods and schools, past the Palisades Center in West Nyack and Helen Hayes Hospital in West Haverstraw. Millions more gallons pass by Westchester, Putnam and Rockland counties on almost-weekly tanker trips and in barges.

Sen. Charles Schumer estimated 40 percent of North Dakota’s oil now travels through the Lower Hudson Valley. He has been pushing for safer rail cars and calling on the Coast Guard to develop an updated, specific spill-response plan for the Hudson. “Safety has to be job number one because this is such a new phenomenon,” Schumer said.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo echoed Schumer’s call in recent days, ordering several state agencies to review safety procedures related to oil shipments.

On Friday, Riverkeeper, Scenic Hudson and the Natural Resources Defense Council asked Cuomo to help persuade federal authorities to impose a moratorium on crude oil shipments in New York until safety improvements and spill-response measures are in place.

New York is prevented by federal law from regulating rail freight transportation or car safety standards.

High demand, more traffic

How much oil moves through the region is murky.

The two companies transferring oil from trains to river vessels in Albany have state permits to handle 2.8 billion gallons per year, but that does not include oil that is not offloaded. Texas-based Buckeye Partners and Global Partners of Waltham, Mass. declined to comment.

CSX also won’t disclose how much oil it hauls through Rockland. Each tank car holds almost 30,000 gallons; that could mean more than 33 million gallons pass through Rockland each week, or1.7 billion gallons a year.

That is likely to grow. CSX is adding passing tracks in West Haverstraw and Stony Point to “provide even more train capacity to serve the crude oil market,” the company’s website says.

“Demand for crude oil, for example, in the New Jersey and Philadelphia area may be as much as five trains per day, or over 400,000 barrels, over the next couple of years,” CSX Chief Operating Officer Oscar Munoz said in January 2013.

That has people like Haverstraw village Mayor Mike Kohut worried. Most of the village sits below the railroad tracks and there are only two roads out during an emergency. “If we had to do an evacuation, that’s a lot of people to get out in a very small footprint,” said Kohut, a volunteer firefighter.

Many of the recent accidents involving oil trains — in Alabama, North Dakota and New Brunswick, Canada — have occurred in remote areas.

Dan Greeley, assistant director of the Rockland County Office of Fire and Emergency Services, dreads the thought of what a derailment and fire in heavily populated Rockland would bring. “It would be disastrous,” Greeley said.

Most tank cars flawed

The DOT-111 cars, the tank cars typically used to ship crude, are vulnerable to ripping apart in crashes — and it’s suspected Bakken crude can corrode their interior surfaces.

After a deadly 2009 explosion in Illinois, the National Transportation Safety Board found the spill and fire could have been less damaging if the tank shells were thicker, and recommended retrofits and replacements.

“The large-scale shipments of crude oil by rail simply didn’t exist 10 years ago, and our safety regulations need to catch up with this new reality,” NTSB Chairwoman Deborah Hersman said Jan. 23 after her agency issued more recommendations to the Federal Railroad Administration and the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.

“The upgrade isn’t that expensive,” said Schumer. “Given all the profitability the oil companies are having, that’s the least they can do.”

The Association of American Railroads favors retrofitting 92,000 tank cars with additional safety features including an outer steel jacket, extra-protective steel plates at the ends and improved fittings and relief valves.

Part of the problem, however, is determining who should bear the costs.

Rail companies own the locomotives and tracks, but shippers and rail car companies own nearly all of the tank cars, CSX spokesman Robert Sullivan said. Then there are the owners of the oil inside the cars, be it the producers, the refiners, those who own the terminals, or a mix.

Haas of Hart Energy believes the industry may pay for some improvements as long as those costs plus the price of the domestically produced oil remain cheaper than foreign product.

The major U.S. railroads are expected in mid-February to provide Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx a report on how they intend to deploy additional safety technology.

The Association of American Railroads points out that more than 99.9 percent of hazardous-material rail shipments reach their destination without a release in an accident. Most train accidents in the U.S. last year were caused by human factors and track and signal defects, according to the American Petroleum Institute.

Rockland emergency officials said they “dodged a bullet” Dec. 6 when an oil train hit a car carrier truck at a crossing in West Nyack.

The train was hauling 99 empty tank cars from Philadelphia to North Dakota when it struck the truck at Pineview Road, near 14 homes and an industrial park. The truck exploded and its driver was hospitalized.

“As I looked out the window, I saw this big ball of fire,” said Pamela Colorito, who heard the screech of the train’s brakes from her home along the rail line.

Had the cars been loaded, the train would have taken longer to stop and some cars could have derailed, Orangeburg Assistant Fire Chief Peter Byrne said.

Byrne said the first step at a train accident is to determine what the cargo is.

“If it’s (crude) from the Dakotas, then you know it’s a red flag,” Byrne said.

On the river

Officials also have been on notice about potential waterway issues ever since the first tanker with 12 million gallons of Bakken crude left Albany in December 2012 and ran aground after about 10 miles, damaging its outer hull.

Tanker shipments resumed early last summer when the narrower Afrodite began sailing between the Buckeye terminal in Albany and a refinery in Saint John, New Brunswick. The Afrodite can carry about 9.7 million gallons each trip, which takes about 10 days. A second tanker is planned.

Global loads a barge every day, said Rich Hendrick, general manager of the Albany port, and sends it to New Jersey. An average barge holds about 90,000 barrels, he said.

The Coast Guard, which would oversee any spill response and cleanup, is updating its contingency plans. Cmdr. Jeffrey Eldridge said there are more than 70 miles of protective boom in the region and oil shippers are required to have cleanup contractors on an accident scene within an hour. Both he and state environmental officials said they are confident they could safely handle a spill on the river.

Eldridge said his agency plans for the worst case: the collision of two vessels and the loss of almost 19 million gallons of oil. “Even with the increase (of shipments), we’re not at the threshold of the worst case,” he said.

But the Coast Guard’s test scenario is one that unfolds near the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. Some contend fewer resources exist upriver.

“We just don’t think there’s a big enough army of responders and equipment to get equipment in place fast enough,” said John Lipscomb, captain of Riverkeeper’s patrol boat.

Meanwhile, Global is seeking state approval to add a rail-to-tanker offloading facility at its New Windsor terminal in Orange County, which now handles heating fuel.

“It all means we are going to continue to see the explosion of the quantity of oil that’s being transported through the Hudson Valley,” said Kate Hudson, a Riverkeeper lawyer. “You start pushing the numbers, you start pushing the risk of accidents that are going to have significant consequences.”

Two oil trains with 80

to 100 tank cars

filled

with

millions of gallons

of Bakken crude travel

daily through Rockland.

Millions more gallons

pass almost weekly by Putnam, Westchester and Rockland in tankers and in barges on the Hudson River.

Lac-Megantic, Quebec

July 6: A 74-car train carrying Bakken crude oil derails and explodes, killing 47 people, destroying 30 buildings and spilling 1.5 million gallons of crude oil.

Casselton, N.D.

Dec. 30: A train hauling grain derails and hits a train with crude oil. About 2,400 people are evacuated; no one was injured. About 400,000 gallons of oil spilled.

Plaster Rock, New Brunswick

Jan. 7: About 150 people are evacuated after 19 cars on a 122-car oil train derails. A large fire burned for 2 ½ days. Controlled explosions were used to burn liquefied petroleum gas.

Philadelphia

Jan. 24: Seven cars from a 101-car CSX Corp. train derailed on a bridge over the Schuylkill River. There were no injuries and no crude was reported spilled.

West Nyack

Dec. 6, 2013: Rockland officials say they “dodged a bullet” when an oil train hauling 99 empty tank cars hit a truck near 14 homes. The truck driver was hospitalized.