By Brenda Flanagan
Correspondent
Hell might look like this: explosions and fireballs, as a so-called oil train derails — igniting 74 tank cars filled with volatile Bakken crude. Heat so intense — the inferno killed 47 people and destroyed half the Canadian town of Lac-Megantic. For some first responders in New Jersey — it’s their worst nightmare because CSX oil trains loaded with Bakken crude routinely rumble through their towns — some three million gallons a week in Bergen County.
“An incident like that in Bergen County could easily take out two towns,” said Lt. Matt Tiedemann.
Tiedemann heads Bergen County’s Office of Emergency Management, which assembled an entire response plan to deal with a potential oil train disaster like Lac-Megantic. He notes fire, EMS, resources from surrounding towns, but…
“Well, I think we’re not as prepared as we could be for these trains coming through, we definitely need more equipment,” said Tiedemann. “For the magnitude of this incident, our resources would be overwhelmed very quickly.”
He’s most-worried about trains carrying what experts call Bakken crude. It contains higher amounts of flammable hydrocarbons, pumped from the Bakken Shale Formation out west and since the Lac-Megantic event last summer, it’s featured in multiple fiery train accidents, from the Bakken, eastwards to Alabama, Virginia and Plaster Rock, New Brunswick. But treatments to stabilize it before transport cost money.
“They’re pulling this oil out of the ground, putting it in the tank car, and shipping it by rail as fast as they possibly can. Tank car manufacturers can’t manufacture tank cars fast enough,” said Tiedemann.
Highlighting another problem: older tank cars called DOT-111s. Critics call them puncture-prone, more likely to explode. Proposed federal rules would phase them out over two years. Some railroads are surcharging oil companies that use them. Meanwhile, towns like Bergenfield conduct disaster drills.
“Where we would have a simulated train derailment near one of our firehouses that would’ve taken out one of our firehouses,” said Bergenfield Fire Department Chief Jason Lanzilotti.
The CSX oil train line slices Bergenfield in half with 5,000 residents within a half-mile on either side of the tracks. The drill managed to evacuate only 2,000.
In a statement, CSX says it’s “CSX is sensitive to the concerns of residents. Safety is CSX’s highest priority and our goal is zero accidents. Through training our employees, investing in our infrastructure and working with first responders to provide them the information they need to be prepared to respond to an incident.”
Emergency response officials say, yes they have a plan in place but that if something goes wrong many towns still lack the training and the equipment to handle a disaster of that magnitude.