Are oil tanker derailments the new normal? It certainly seems that way. In the past 3 weeks, there have been 5 derailments in North America — most recently in Gogama, Ontario. The oil boom has created an increase in the use of these trains, and as a result, the risk of derailment has skyrocketed.
Oil Bomb Trains
Technically, they’re called “railroad tank cars”, but due to their tendency to explode and split open, they’ve been dubbed “oil bomb trains”. The derailment of one of these trains is often catastrophic, with long-lasting consequences for the communities in which they occur.
Railroad tank car derailments often cause massive fires that can take days to put out. The smoke from these fires pollutes the air and can cause respiratory issues for local residents. Leaked oil from the split cars contaminates waterways used for drinking and fishing. There’s no doubt that these trains are dangerous, so what’s to be done?
“Safer” Tankers Still Carry Risk
Following the 2013 derailment and explosion of an oil train that killed 47 people in Lac-Megantic, Quebec, many claimed that the old DOT-111 tanker models were the reason behind the disaster and others like it. A new model, the CPC-1232 were developed. CPC-1232 tankers are retrofitted with protective shields that are supposed to prevent rupturing. Despite this protective measure, at least four of the five recent incidents have involved the newer cars.
Environmental and safety advocates call for stricter safety measures, but the turnaround has been slow. The US government seems reluctant to create national standards that would limit the amount of potentially explosive gas in tankers carrying oil from North Dakota. While the Department of Transportation has proposed rules that would slow down crude-by-rail deliveries and require tankers to have insulated steel shells, the White House Office of Management and Budget has said it will need until May to finalize those rules.
New information from federal authorities indicates that 25 million Americans live within the 1-mile evacuation zone that surrounds tracks used by crude oil rail lines. How many more of these disasters need to occur before our government takes the risks seriously? Only time will tell.