Last fall a train derailed in Paulina. Now they know what was on it.
A Canadian National freight train that derailed nearly four months ago in St. James Parish and spilled hazardous hydrochloric acid had many other toxic, carcinogenic, corrosive and highly flammable chemicals in tow, state investigative reports show. The hydrochloric acid leak from one derailed tank car on the afternoon of Nov. 2 forced the evacuation of 500 people in the Mississippi River community of Paulina for about a day’s time. But, with 76 loaded cars carrying 10,451 tons of product, the train had plenty of other chemicals that, had they leaked too, could have made things much worse, a newly public tally of the train’s contents show. Highly flammable liquids like formaldehyde solution, dicyclopentadiene and choline hydroxide; highly toxic or caustic chemicals like chloroform, chlorine and Some these hazardous chemicals weren’t far from where the derailment happened in the string of tank cars nearly more than four-fifths of a mile long, the reports show.toluene diisocyanate; and the flammable and potent carcinogen ethylene oxide were all in the train’s tank cars.
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Shades of East Palestine and I don’t remember reading about this unless it was a small blurb in the paper.
Some these hazardous chemicals weren’t far from where the derailment happened in the string of tank cars nearly more than four-fifths of a mile long, the reports show. Used in polyurethane foams and other products, toluene diisocyanate, for instance, presents an acute toxicity risk to people. It can be fatal if inhaled, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Even at concentrations slightly above when someone can start to smell its sharp, pungent odor, federal regulators consider it an immediate threat to health and life. The one tank car on the train holding 192,047 gallons of TDI was 10 spots back from the last of the eight tank cars that did derail, the records show. Through a public records request, The Advocate obtained a CN summary of shipping information for the train’s rail cars in a collection of Louisiana State Police investigative documents and photographs on the Nov. 2 derailment.
Canadian National shows a small tally.
The CN tally details a just small sample of the daily flow of products being shipped to and from Louisiana’s industrial corridor and through communities along the railroads and up and down the river. Eric Deroche, St. James Parish’s homeland security director, said the CN train’s contents are no surprise to him. With the exception of shipments to a coal terminal in Convent, most trains in St. James are laden with hazardous material and local officials make their emergency response plans with that idea in mind, he said. “The majority of the trains that pass through here are hauling chemicals on rail,” Deroche said. The car that leaked hydrochloric acid, for example, was one of 19 on the train containing the corrosive liquid that can burn the skin on contact and damage the respiratory system when inhaled. The car that leaked and the seven others that derailed around it were among a pack of 15 cars containing hydrochloric acid from Reagent Chemical in Geismar. They were headed to Reagent’s or other companies’ facilities in Nebraska, Oklahoma, Michigan, Kansas, Illinois, Indiana and Minnesota, the tally shows.
The train is a supply train for other sites.
The TDI, the potentially fatal toxic chemical, was being shipped from BASF in Geismar to a company in Ontario, Canada. Six tank cars with other toxic chemicals also used in polyurethanes as TDI is, methylene diphenyl diisocyanate, were even closer to the derailed cars than the car carrying TDI. One was being shipped by Huntsman International in Geismar to a Huntsman rail yard in Montreal, Canada, while another was going to a Huntsman plant in Wisconsin. The four other cars were being shipped from BASF in Geismar to sites across the Midwest and Canada, the tally shows. Also known as MDI, the chemical is toxic through ingestion, inhalation or absorption through the skin. The CN train didn’t contain the highly flammable and toxic chemical vinyl chloride, the handling of which is the center of a high-profile train derailment a few weeks ago in East Palestine, Ohio. The material, however, is a common chemical building block in Louisiana’s petrochemical industry.
The State Police should have been notified of the contents of the rail cars.
Under state law, railroads are not required to report on an overall basis to Louisiana State Police how much hazardous material is traveling through the state’s rail lines, said Capt. Nick Manale, an LSP spokesman, adding that the railroads must notify State Police about the contents in the event of an emergency. Also, there are placards attached to each railcar warning of its contents. A CN spokesman declined to say how often hazardous chemicals are on its freight trains in Louisiana. “For security reasons, we do not disclose which products move on which lines, at what volumes and at which times,” the spokesman, Jonathan Abecassis, said. But he noted that 90% of the material shipped by CN are not dangerous goods. He added that shipping products by rail keeps it off roads and highways “and 99.9% of all shipments arrive at their destination safely.” Federal rail safety data show Louisiana’s rate for any kind of accident on the rails is among the lowest in the nation from 2018 through 2021.
I guess a derailment is not an accident.
Derailments, however, are fairly common in Louisiana. There were 33 in first 11 months of 2022, including seven others involving CN’s Illinois Central line, federal rail safety data show. Several involved hazardous tank cars, but leaks from the sturdy cars in those derailments are relatively rare. The last time a derailment led to a leak of hazardous material in Louisiana was in June 2017, when one gallon of flammable tetrahydroindene escaped a derailed car on CN’s Illinois Central line in Geismar, federal records say. A more significant leak of a few thousand gallons of diesel fuel happened during a Union Pacific derailment in Morehouse Parish in October 2014, federal records say. Still, even the threat of a leak of vinyl chloride in an August 2013 in St. Landry Parish forced the evacuation of about 100 people. Other tank cars with less dangerous chemicals in the Union Pacific derailment did leak in that incident. Other kinds of accidents can also cause dangerous leaks, too. In January 2017, two rail cars collided and sparked a hydrochloric acid leak of about 18,000 gallons in a CN railyard in Geismar.
This problem has been going on for over 30 years.
One of the most well-known and devastating Louisiana train derailments happened in September 1982 in the town of Livingston. An Illinois Central Gulf freight train, staffed with a crew that had been drinking bourbon, went off the tracks and derailed 43 cars, including 34 that contained hazardous materials and flammable petroleum products. Many tank cars broke open, burned and exploded, sending toxic vapors over the town. Among the chemicals was vinyl chloride. More than 3,000 people were evacuated, some for weeks. The derailment required monitoring of an 8-acre decontamination area for several decades. State and federal investigators haven’t yet reached a conclusion on the cause of the derailment in Paulina last year. In an early report that CN was required to provide to the Federal Railroad Administration, the company says the tank car’s wheels went off the tracks and that “was initiated by a reletively (sic) minor track buckle.” The report says the track buckling led to a misalignment of 6 inches to one foot but doesn’t say what might have caused the buckling or what caused the tank car to break open. A separate State Police report on the agency’s response says the tank car was punctured in the derailment and quickly leaked all but 300 to 500 gallons of its 190,000 gallons of hydrochloric acid. Heavier-than-air vapors from the acid that can linger on the ground are what forced the evacuation. At one point, they so inhibited early remediation work that authorities brought in an air boat so its big fan could blow away the foul mist, the State Police report says.
Why was this one not publicized but East Palestine was? Is Paulina a Black community? This is our pact with the devil coupled with poor rail maintenance.
