Transportation officials issue oil safety measures

WASHINGTON >> An emergency order requiring trains hauling crude oil and other flammable liquids to slow down as they pass through urban areas and a series of other steps to improve the safety were announced Friday by the Department of Transportation.

The Obama administration has been under intense pressure from members of Congress as well as state and local officials to ensure the safety of oil trains that traverse the country after leaving the Bakken region of North Dakota. To get to refineries on the East and West coasts and the Gulf of Mexico, oil shipments travel through more than 400 counties, including major metropolitan areas such as Philadelphia, Seattle, Chicago, Newark and dozens of other cities.

No trains currently ship crude through the Bay Area, though local officials expressed alarm last year when it was learned that Bakken crude was being shipped via rail to a facility in Richmond. From there, it was trucked to Tesoro’s Golden Eagle refinery near Martinez.

A plan to transport oil from out of state to a Phillips66 refinery in San Luis Obispo County via Contra Costa, Alameda and Santa Clara counties could be approved later this year.

The measures did not satisfy Tony Semenza, executive director of Community Awareness and Emergency Response, a group consisting of emergency response agencies, government and businesses that use, store, handle, produce or transport hazardous materials.

Semenza said he was disappointed by the Department of Transportation’s soft approach that asks carriers for voluntary compliance instead of requiring them to share real-time data with emergency responders, upgrade their fleet and hire more inspectors.

“That’s the problem with bureaucracy,” he said. “Instead of recommendations, there should have been hard and fast rules.”

U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson, D-Napa, who just this week introduced new legislation aimed at making crude transport safer, said in an email Friday the emergency order was a good start.

“The DOT orders are a step in the right direction, but more still must be done to make sure crude is being transported safely through our communities,” said Thompson, whose district includes a portion of Contra Costa County. “We also need to make sure our railcars meet the strongest possible standards and put measures in place that limit the volatility of crude oil transported by rail – which is exactly what my legislation would codify into law.”

There have been a series of fiery oil train explosions in the U.S. and Canada in recent years, including one just across the border in Lac-Megantic, Quebec, that killed 47 people.

Major freight railroads have already limited oil trains to no more 40 mph in “high threat” urban areas under a voluntary agreement reached last year with Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. But Friday’s order makes the speed limitation a requirement and extends it to trains carrying other flammable liquids like ethanol.

The voluntary agreement also applied only to trains that used older tank cars that are easily ruptured in crashes. The new order includes tank cars constructed since 2011 that were designed to replace the older cars, but which have also repeatedly ruptured in crashes, spilling their contents. So far this year there have been four oil train derailments resulting in huge fireballs — two in the U.S. and two in Canada. All involved the newer tank cars known as 1232 cars.