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HOPEWELL BOROUGH: Council hears report on dangers of oil transport trains

By Frank Mustac, Special Writer
HOPEWELL BOROUGH — The dangers associated with freight trains carrying crude oil rumbling through Mercer County destined for refineries along the Delaware River and elsewhere were outlined to the Borough Council recently.
Tracy Carluccio, deputy director of the nonprofit Delaware Riverkeeper Network, spoke to the borough’s governing body Aug. 6.
In a phone in interview Aug. 10, Ms. Carluccio said she hopes the borough would officially support U.S. Senate Bill S546 co-sponsored by New Jersey Democratic Sen. Cory Booker.
The bill, she said, “calls for training and equipment for local emergency responders” to deal with possible of crude oils spills, fire and explosions that could result from derailed tanker cars being punctured.
Earlier this year, the municipality’s elected officials already had put into writing that they want to see safer tanker cars used to transport the crude coming primarily from the Bakken region of North Dakota through the borough and neighboring Hopewell Township, Pennington Borough and Ewing Township along the roughly 17 miles of CSX West Trenton Line rail tracks in the county.
The resolution they passed in January also contains language requesting federal and state public safety officials “to be more proactive in sharing necessary data and product information with our local first responders so they can be properly trained and prepared for any incident.”
The Delaware Riverkeeper Network, according to Ms. Carluccio, is calling on the federal government to forbid the commonly-used DOT-111 freight train tank cars from carrying crude oil.
“The main problem is that the Bakken Shale oil that’s being carried is highly volatile,” she said. “It’s more likely to catch fire, and it’s being carried in these tank cars that were designed to carry corn syrup. They were not designed to carry hazardous material such as crude oil.”
The newer tank cars called CPC 1232s, according to the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, are not safe to carry Bakken crude oil, either.
“There have been regulations issued from the U.S. Department of Transportation to upgrade the design of the tank cars that carry this material, but they phase in over a period of time, and it will actually take five to 10 years for the DOT-111’s not to be used anymore,” Ms. Carluccio said. “We’re really concerned because that means that these dangerous tank cars that are not designed to hold this explosive material are coming through Hopewell Borough and Mercer County, and the train traffic is increasing.”
Bakken Shale oil production is expected to continue to increase from 1 million barrels of oil per day to about 1.4 million barrels of oil per day in 2016, according to statistics provided by Ms. Carluccio’s organization.
Nationally, 60 percent of the all crude oil produced domestically is being moved by trains.
In 2013, 113 incidents involving crude-by-rail mishaps were reported in the United States, Ms. Carluccio said.
“The 2013 crude-by-rail disaster in Quebec Canada that killed 47 people and literally destroyed the town of Lac Megantic, is the worst on record,” she said.
“According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, there has been more oil spilled in 2013 than there was in the previous 37 years combined from oil trains,” Ms. Carluccio said. “That’s pretty shocking.”
Hopewell Borough Mayor Paul Anzano, speaking by phone Monday, described Ms. Carluccio as “passionate about her issue.”
“She rightfully pointed out that the trains do carry volatile fuel, and that some of cars are antiquated,” the mayor said. “There’s no denying what’s being carried in those train cars. We all are aware of it.”
Mayor Anzano said he would like the town’s police and fire officials to update the Borough Council regarding the trains hauling crude oil.
“We also want to hear from our EMS people about the training they receive and the information they get from CSX and from the county,” the mayor said. 