Rules about hazmat trains worry Pennsylvania officials

There is only one danger which is nearly equal in its deadly consequences to an accident or terrorist attack at a chemical plant situated near a residential area: an accident or terrorist attack involving rail cars carrying hazardous chemical materials. Deadly chemicals are used, among other things, in water purification facilities. Cities across the United States appear to accept that such chemicals must make their way to these facilities, with the attendant risks to the local population. What more and more cities appear unwilling to accept is having to bear the risks of hazardous materials being shipped through their communities to other cities’ facilities. Washington, D.C. and Baltimore, for example, are using the legal system to try to prevent rail companies from using tracks in Baltimore and Washington to carry hazardous materials destined to cities in Pennsylvania and New York.

In Pennsylvania there are similar worries. The U.S. federal government is requiring railroad companies to reassess how they transport hazardous materials across the country — fueling concerns that such materials could roll through parts of Pennsylvania’s York and Adams counties. Despite indications that something new is coming down the tracks, local officials say they can not get straight answers to vital questions of public safety. “We’re getting everything second, third or fourth hand,” Kay Carmen, director of the York County Office of Emergency Management, said Thursday. “No one’s talked to us.”

She said she has contacted several federal and state agencies, as well as similar agencies in Maryland. She has also called CSX Transportation — the primary rail carrier through this area. “I realize the railroads are federally regulated, but just because they’re federally regulated, they shouldn’t use it from keeping an open dialog with first responders who are going to be on the scene before the railroad personnel get there to take over the incident,” she said.

York Daily Record’s Joseph Deinlein writes that after months of local officials and others seeking details on the potential for an increase in hazardous materials coming through the area, CSX spokesman Bob Sullivan said Thursday it is just a rumor.

Still, the new rules set by the federal government leave some room for concern. Documents created in December by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration outline how the agency is requiring rail companies to assess the safety and security of each of their rail lines in regards to the transport of hazardous materials, and