In Big Farms of Corn Territory people tolerate rail accident spilling ethanol and diesel into river.
More scrutiny for ethanol rail transport
Despite soaring shipments to refineries, safety record strong
Aug. 31, 2013
Much of the nation's ethanol moves by rail to refineries. / AP
Written by
Christopher Doering
WASHINGTON — In an area where ethanol has played a major role in shaping the city and driving its economy, the May derailment of a Canadian Pacific Railway train five miles outside of Charles City in northern Iowa apparently hasn’t caused residents to question the safety of shipping the corn-based fuel by rail.
Farmers nearby grow row upon row of corn that is shipped to local ethanol plants, including a Valero facility just two miles northwest of town. The ethanol plants have attracted jobs and helped pump money into local businesses that populate the community of almost 7,700 residents.
The late-night derailment, the result of a washed-out track following flooding, sent four cars loaded with ethanol, one carrying rocks and three locomotives from the 80-car train into the Little Cedar River that runs parallel to the tracks. The accident sent 49,000 gallons of ethanol from three of the tank cars and up to 400 gallons diesel from one of the train’s locomotives leaking into the water.
“I haven’t heard any negative comments or concerns about ethanol being transported through the community,” said Eric Whipple, the fire chief in Charles City. “I think it has become a way of life and just the way things go with all of the ethanol plants in the area.”
“It has to be transported somehow, and as long as the ethanol companies and the railroad companies are using safety precautions ... I think people are fairly confident that their safety is OK.”
Even before the derailment, Whipple said local fire and rescue had been trained by railroad officials and other experts on how to deal with spills such as ethanol, gaining firsthand knowledge about the way the fuel acts in an accident and what to do if it starts on fire. “Everything seemed to go really smoothly with how we’ve been trained to handle those situations,” he said.
Still, the Iowa derailment was just one of the accidents in recent months that have focused attention on the safety of transporting ethanol, crude oil and other hazardous materials by rail. In early July, a runaway freight train hauling crude oil in Lac-Megantic, Quebec, derailed and exploded, killing 47 people. A few weeks later, a CSX ethanol train derailed in Florida’s Port of Tampa, sending 11 cars off the track, including three that spilled fuel.
Ethanol cannot be shipped through gasoline pipelines because of its corrosive properties, leaving movement of the flammable liquid to trains and trucks, often through densely populated residential areas. The ethanol industry has conceded that with railroads shipping about 75 percent of ethanol transported each year, safe delivery of the fuel is paramount.
Lisa Richardson, executive director of the South Dakota Corn Growers Association, estimated that the state is even more dependent upon trains to ship the fuel, with about 95 percent of the 1 billion gallons of ethanol produced annually shipped to other markets by train. For ethanol, corn, soybeans and other commodities, South Dakota’s small population means only a fraction of what is produced locally is consumed here, leaving growers dependent on rail to move their product and keep them competitive on price with farmers in other parts of the country.
“It is our lifeline to the marketplace,” Richardson said. “There’s only one way for it to leave, and that’s a railroad track.”
The corn-based fuel is a small but growing commodity for railroads, with ethanol shipments commanding just over 1 percent of total carloads moved by train annually. In 2011, rail companies transported 340,657 carloads of ethanol, according to the latest data, more than double the number shipped in 2007.
The Surface Transportation Board, a regulatory body charged with overseeing the rail industry, estimated that in South Dakota, the country’s fifth-largest ethanol producer, almost 34,000 cars, or about 11 percent of U.S. shipments, originated from the state in 2011.
Toward that end, ethanol producers, emergency officials, railroads and local communities have worked closer together to prevent accidents and ensure that any that do occur are quickly addressed.
The number of severe accidents involving ethanol tank cars has been small considering the sharp growth in ethanol shipments from the Midwest to the East Coast, California and Texas, and a corresponding increase in mileage — ethanol tank cars traveled a total of 38.8 billion miles in 2011. The rail industry has touted its strong safety record on hazardous material shipments, including ethanol, with more than 99.99 percent of all shipments arriving at their destination without incident. Overall, accidents involving the release of hazardous materials have fallen by 16 percent during the past decade, according to the Federal Railroad Administration.
In 2011, the agency said there were 2.2 million carloads of hazardous materials shipped by rail, with only 21 cars experiencing any type of release. In South Dakota, only a handful of train cars have released hazardous material in the past decade — one in Brookings County in July 2011, and two more in 2004 in Grant County.
“The tremendous safety record (we have) for moving hazardous materials includes crude and ethanol,” said Holly Arthur, a spokeswoman with the Association of American Railroads.
When asked whether tankers used to ship ethanol are as safe as they can be, Arthur said: “The industry is constantly looking for ways to improve the safety of everything we do, including tank cars.”
Older tank cars not made safer
Tank car manufacturers, along with the rail and chemical industries, agreed voluntarily to strengthen the safety of tank cars built since October 2011 by including thicker, puncture-resistance shells and extra protective shields at the ends of each car.
The groups considered retrofitting cars built before that time, about 40,000 tankers, but determined it would be too difficult and costly. The decision drew the ire of the National Transportation Safety Board, which said in a March 2012 report that the rail industry’s proposal “ignores the safety risks posed by the current fleet” that will be in higher demand as more ethanol is blended into the nation’s fuel supply through 2022.
The “older” cars are on average 8 years old, the NTSB said, with an estimated service life of 30 to 40 years, meaning they will be in use for several more years while newer, updated tankers come on line.
The Federal Railroad Administration made a point of singling out ethanol shipments in an Aug. 2 emergency order outlining a series of safety initiatives for securing trains following the accident in Quebec. The agency noted that since 2009, there have been four serious derailments involving ethanol — one each in Illinois and Montana and two in Ohio.
http://www.argusleader.com/article/20130901/NEWS/309010027/More-scrutiny-ethanol-rail-transport?nclick_check=1
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