Texas, Quebec disasters prompt local planning

Recent disasters, including a train explosion in Canada and a fertilizer plant explosion in Texas, illustrate the need to be prepared.

That’s what Hill County Disaster and Emergency Services coordinator Joe Parenteau told the members of the Local Emergency Planning Committee at its monthly meeting this week.

“We’re just seeing more and more examples of things that happen,” Parenteau said.

Parenteau updated the LEPC about the explosion of a fertilizer plant in the town of West, Texas, April 17 and on the explosion of a runaway oil tanker train Sunday in Lac-Megantic, Quebec, about 150 miles east of Montreal.

Parenteau noted that the explosion in Quebec was of crude oil from the Bakken formation in eastern Montana and North Dakota, which trains also carry west along the Hi-Line.

“If you’ve noticed, we do have train cars going through our community, mile-long train cars … and this explosion was Bakken oil, and that’s what is coming through Havre,” he said. It’s a potential definite hazard that is there and something we need to be aware of.”

Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway spokesman Gus Melonas this week declined to estimate how many trains carrying crude oil run along the Hi-Line each day, saying the company does not comment on the specific transactions of its customers.

The runaway train in Quebec derailed with at least five of its 72 cars of crude oil exploding, The Associated Press reports, flattening buildings in the town of 6,000 people and with 24 people confirmed dead as of Thursday and another 26 missing people presumed dead.

The exact cause of the crash is unknown — “Exactly what happened there, we’re not sure yet,” Parenteau said at Tuesday’s meeting — but it appears the brakes failed on the unmmanned Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway freight train, parent company U.S.-based parent Rail World Inc.

Parenteau and Hill County Planner and Sanitarian Clay Vincent said that the trains slow and stop in Havre, a main BNSF fueling yard, but that the committee needs to be aware and plan for possible disasters related to them.

Parenteau, who said training opportunities to plan and prepare for such disasters are available, said that the trains, carrying some 3.5 million gallons of oil, don’t slow down much for other communities in the region. The chance for a crash exists, he said.

Vincent said other problems, such as leaks in tanks carrying hazardous chemicals such as anhydrous ammonia, have been detected on trains stopped in Havre. Those trains are pulled out of town and the problems dealt with following proper procedures, but derailments also happen in the area, he added.

“So it can happen,” Vincent said.

Parenteau said a key is having a planning group — like the Hill County LEPC, which meets monthly, and the other LEPCs in the region — watching the situation, informing the public and making preparations if a disaster does occur.

That topic has arisen in Texas, Parenteau said, where an informal survey by a television station found that many counties — including McLennan County, where the West Fertilizer Company plant exploded April 17 — may not be following federal regulations requiring county LEPCs to meet and plan and prepare for emergencies.

McLennan County was one of 190 of the state’s 254 counties that either had outdated contact information or did not respond to WFAA Channel 8’s request for information, the station reports. The Texas Emergency Management agency contacted also did not respond to repeated requests for information about existing LEPCs.

The explosion was caused when a fire in the plant ignited a small portion of ammonium nitrate — a common agricultural fertilizer which is highly explosive — stored in the facility. The explosion and fire killed 15 people, including 10 first-responders in the town.

Parenteau said that many in West, Texas, probably did not know that the explosive chemical was in their backyard.

“People in the community, who lived in there, never knew what was being stored there,” he said.

The explosion was within 1,000 feet of schools, a hospital and a long-term care center all within 1,000 feet of the plant, he said.

“That’s probably not a good location to store something like that,” he said.

He said one positive effect of the disaster is a re-examination of national policy.

Parenteau said Environmental Protection Agency regulations provide reporting exemptions including for agricultural chemicals stored on a farm or for retail sale to farmers.

That exemption could prevent groups and agencies — including LEPCs — from knowing exactly what is being stored in the region.

A report by the Congressional Research Service said that while ammonium nitrate and anhydrous ammonia are included in reporting requirements to agencies like the EPA and Homeland Security, they are hodge-podge and different state and federal agencies may receive completely different reports.

Congress has held hearings since the April explosion, and Parenteau said the regulations are under scrutiny and could be changed.

But, he said, the disasters illustrate the need of the LEPC to keep on top of what is happening in town, to inform and prepare the public and to prepare for disasters if they occur.

“We keep seeing more and more examples of things that have happened,” he said. “That’s the reason this community needs (the LEPC), and hopefully we can address, hopefully make things better and safer in our communities, make a difference.”