Train derailment in Ohio and chemical release

[bwframe]

And how many have bug out plans and logistics squared away?

Very good point!

Lotta folks think they have everything squared away to bug in, no matter what.

 

[smokingman]

“We know there is a plume (of chemicals) moving down the Ohio River,” Tiffani Kavalec, the head of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency’s water management subdivision, said in a news conference. “We think it’s on its way towards Huntington, West Virginia, now,” she added.

When pressed further, Kavalec said that the plume is comprised mainly of “fire combustion chemicals.” There could also be multiple “volatile organic compounds” that were being carried on the train in the Ohio River but are “very diluted,” she said.

 

[mmpsteve]

Havn't seen this posted yet. Drone footage over crash site. Lord, what a mess.



.

 

[BugI02]

HAHAHAHA The rail company offered $25k in damage payments to the residents of the town, which equals out to $5 per person.

Could we look after our own country instead of eastern europe?

Only if TPTB can find a way to get paid while doing it

 

[Cameramonkey]

Only if TPTB can find a way to get paid while doing it

That shouldnt be purple

 

[Sigblitz]

The strike was happening. It was stopped by the Biden administration and senate by force.

Biden signs bill to block U.S. railroad strike

President Joe Biden signed legislation Friday to block a national U.S. railroad strike that could have devastated the American economy.

www.reuters.com

We have all heard the term quiet quitting by now. Given what has happened in the last decade at railroads with PSR( https://www.freightwaves.com/news/what-is-precision-scheduled-railroading-psr ),you can wager things that should be done and are supposed to be getting done are not.

Things have not been going well,and it will likely get worse.

I disagree.
The conductors contract was settled by Biden. They didn't get the sick days they wanted. There are a half dozen other unions that are still negotiating. It could take a year.

 

[Sigblitz]

The 5 o'clock news said dead fish, but nothing in the water and no land animals affected. Nothing to see here.
Look, balloon.

 

[Sigblitz]

HAHAHAHA The rail company offered $25k in damage payments to the residents of the town, which equals out to $5 per person.

Could we look after our own country instead of eastern europe?

Here's 5 dollars. Sign this.

 

[Sigblitz]

So did the hot spot detector pick up the fire, and everyone thinks it was picking up a bad wheel like it's supposed to do? Someone was the scapegoat for a bad wheel.

Edit: I'm going to call bad wheel here. NTSB said the crew got the alert and did an emergency brake set. This would bump the cars into each other behind the dragging car. A slow stop may have kept them on track.

 

[Tombs]

Speaking of preparedness, should a similar chemical release happen around us, what kind of breathing gear would you need to be safe?

Are there filters that would handle these kind of chemicals or would you need air tanks?

 

[smokingman]

It is a good thing the FRA( https://railroads.dot.gov/railroad-safety ) did not classify this train as hazardous,this could have been so much worse.

Ohio train derailment: Gov. Mike DeWine says it's 'absurd' cargo wasn't considered 'high hazardous material'

The EPA says that it hasn't detected “any levels of health concern” in the air in the area around East Palestine after a train derailment.

news.yahoo.com

 

[Cameramonkey]

It is a good thing the FRA( https://railroads.dot.gov/railroad-safety ) did not classify this train as hazardous,this could have been so much worse.

Ohio train derailment: Gov. Mike DeWine says it's 'absurd' cargo wasn't considered 'high hazardous material'

The EPA says that it hasn't detected “any levels of health concern” in the air in the area around East Palestine after a train derailment.

news.yahoo.com

Dear God, if THAT wasnt a hazardous load, what is? Nukes only?

 

[smokingman]

Dear God, if THAT wasnt a hazardous load, what is? Nukes only?

Did you catch this part in the article?
"Five railcar tankers of vinyl chloride were intentionally breached; the vinyl chloride was diverted to an excavated trench and then burned off. Areas of contaminated soil and free liquids were observed and potentially covered and/or filled during reconstruction of the rail line including portions of the trench /burn pit that was used for the open burn off of vinyl chloride," the EPA said in the letter.

How is that not going to get into the water table? "EPA after the burn. Oh,pools of chemicals. Welp time to wrap this up and save the railroad some money. Put some dirt on it. "

 

[BigRed]

The Old Lady wrote about this in "Atlas Shrugged", a long time ago:

Michael “Midas” Mulligan:
"It's the chance dangers that I'm afraid of--the senseless, unpredictable dangers of a world falling apart. Consider the physical risks of complex machinery in the hands of blind fools and fear-crazed cowards. Just think of their railroads--you'd be taking a chance on some such horror as that Winston tunnel incident^ every time you stepped aboard a train--and there will be more incidents of that kind, coming faster and faster. They'll reach the stage where no day will pass without a major wreck."

John Galt:
"I know it."

Mulligan:
"And the same will be happening in every other industry, wherever machines are used--the machines which they thought could replace our minds. Plane crashes, oil tank explosions, blast-furnace break-outs, high-tension wire electrocutions, subway cave-ins and trestle collapses--they'll see them all. The very machines that had made their life so safe, will now make it a continuous peril."

Galt:
"I know it."

^For those of you who haven't recently read "Atlas", a steam locomotive was sent to pull a passenger train through an eight-mile mountain tunnel (the diesel locomotive previously pulling the train had derailed and been wrecked), even though the tunnel ventilation system was inadequate for steam locomotion.

When the train stalled inside the tunnel due to the effects of the steam locomotive exhaust on the crew and passengers, it was subsequently rear-ended by a following train carrying munitions, and the resultant explosion collapsed the tunnel.
*****
As far as the deterioration of the railroads are concerned, the peculiar perversion of Capitalism that was advocated by the late railroad executive E. Hunter Harrison and dubbed "Precision Scheduled Railroading", is primarily manifested in the objective of driving "Operating Ratio" (operating expense as a percentage of revenue) as low as possible.

Short-term minimization of wage and maintenance expense drives down Operating Ratio, pleasing large-scale investors--until the road finds out that it no longer has sufficient crewing available to move trains, or to inspect and maintain motive power and rolling stock, or to inspect and repair the right-of-way suffering from deferred maintenance.

From what I read in "Trains" a few months back, NS was actually taking a look at whether the never-ending pursuit of a lower Operating Ratio was actually in the long-term interest of the company. Maybe a closer spacing between defect detectors could have prevented or at least mitigated the effects of the East Palestine wreck.

A lot of defect detectors could have been installed for what NS is going to have to pay for the wreck.

Bump

 

[movevio1]

Covid proved that citizens will tolerate any level of control put on them by their government.

The truth

 

[Sigblitz]

Did you catch this part in the article?
"Five railcar tankers of vinyl chloride were intentionally breached; the vinyl chloride was diverted to an excavated trench and then burned off. Areas of contaminated soil and free liquids were observed and potentially covered and/or filled during reconstruction of the rail line including portions of the trench /burn pit that was used for the open burn off of vinyl chloride," the EPA said in the letter.

How is that not going to get into the water table? "EPA after the burn. Oh,pools of chemicals. Welp time to wrap this up and save the railroad some money. Put some dirt on it. "

It would have to sit there untouched for 25 years, or spend millions to can it.

 

[Tombs]

Elections are secure
The vaccine is safe and effective
The air is perfectly safe to breathe

 

[Route 45]

 

[bwframe]

 

[Blackhawk2001]

Hmmm, the states and epa slap fines heavily for burning things such as wire, shingles and plastic..but it's ok to burn direct hazardous chemicals. Why wasn't these chemicals just pumped into proper containers..

When I worked for Emergency Management a couple decades ago, most fire departments were pretty well up to speed about how to handle various hazardous materials, and that especially applied to aircraft accidents and train derailments. I think it's a pretty safe bet the fire department(s) involved used the safest-recommended course of action available to them. It's a sad fact that industry requires using hazardous materials for manufacturing and processing and the safest way to transport large amounts of them is - usually - by rail. Of course, when that much "methylethyldeath" gets loose, the consequences tend to not be pretty.

Indy is fortunate that we haven't had something like this happen close to Downtown.