TransportationHeavier oil train traffic in western U.S. causes safety worries

In May, following extensive debate regarding security concerns, U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx ordered railroads to share oil train shipment information with states, in order better to inform first responders should an accident occur.

The order follows a deadly year for oil train accidents, including a July 2013 derailment in Lac Megantic, Quebec which resulted in the deaths of forty-seven people and an 30 April derailment in Lynchburg, Virginia. Additionally, individuals such as Senator Maria Cantwell (D-Washington) have urged federal regulators better to monitor the nearly 400,000 carloads of crude oil per year that which traveling across the country.

As the Spokesman-Review reports, the latest rail traffic information shows that the domestic shale oil boom has had a massive impact on the amount of oil train traffic in western states. Even more worryingly, many routes pass right through major urban areas where an accident would be much more deadly.

BNSF railway, for instance, moved as many as 27 oil trains a week through Chicago’s Cook County and 13 in a week through King County. Crude from the Bakken region of North Dakota and Montana made up the majority of shipments — and past accidents resulting in the being the only type of oil that the order applied to.

Additionally, different states are debating how to handle the new information. Elizabeth Duncan, a spokeswoman for the Idaho Bureau of Homeland Security said that the information would not be available to the public at large. Officials in New York, North Dakota, and Wisconsin are all said to be mulling the possibility of implementing open-records laws.

Other states have arranged with BNSF, CSX, and Union Pacific to keep the information confidential.

In the first quarter of 2014 alone, there were 110,000 carloads of oil. Each train can carry three million gallons of oil.