The price of doing business: 4 billion dollars for collateral damage/human death/environmental spills.
By Mathew Brown and Josh Funk of the Associated Press
https://mail.google.com/mail/?tab=wm#sent/1401abcb8eb105a4
Editorial note: For those of you who are counting, in February 2015 there were 6 derailments between the US and Canada. Of those 6 derailments, 2 trains were carrying fuel. They exploded and contaminated adjacent waterways.
Ash rains down from the sky; Children in 14 nearby school shelter in place.
Editorial note: Jay Gunkleman has advised us that the catalytic cracker unit (which was new) was the source of the explosion. The catalyst is likely a metal like Vanadium, and the chemistry is likely alkaline, similar to the CataCarb release from Rodeo’s refinery in the 1990s at then Unocal (now P66), where the catalyst was full of Boron, vanadium and “secret ingredients” they never did disclose. The LA neighborhood (Torrance/Compton) has ash deposited following the explosion/fire… as well as the refinery itself…. likely not healthy for dermal or respiratory exposure, much like Crockett had following the release locally. It will be interesting to track the details of this refinery explosion and the local impacts. At the very least, ash samples should be tested for metals and acidity/alkalinity
Here are two links to the story:
By Veronica Rocha and Rueben Vives (L.A. Times, February 18, 2015)
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-explosion-exxon-torrance-refinery-20150218-story.html
By Tami Abdollah (Associated Press, February 18, 2015):
All of the oil tank cars on the 109-car train were CPC 1232 models. Newer. Tougher.
Apparently not.. The rapid uptick in crude-by-rail accidents are the product of a 40-fold increase in crude-by-rail shipments since 2008.
Reprint from Reuters
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/02/17/us-usa-train-derailment-csx-idUSKBN0LK1ST20150217
Tankers fall into river. State of Emergency called by the Governor.
http://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-train-derailment-west-virginia-20150216-story.html
This is the second derailment on one week. The other one was in Ontario, Canada:
Appellants have 30 days to sue to win safety concessions for both workers and the community and to get the refinery to run a cleaner operation
Pictured above: Greg Karras of Communities for a Better Environment, waits his turn to speak. (Photo Credit: Dan Honda, Bay Area News Group.)
A quick synopsis: The Co. Co. County Board of Supervisors brushed past many fatal flaws in the Rodeo P66 EIR. Just for starters: the EIR refused to admit that the Propane Expansion Project was, in truth, a Canadian Tar Sands Project (and thus, would create tremendous amounts of local pollution and endanger both worker and community safety as currently designed.)
But the P66 EIR for the Nipomo/Santa Maria refinery in San Louis Obispo County spelled it out in black and white: Canadian Tar Sands will come to P66 in San Louis Obispo County by barge. Then after being slightly refined, the crude will be shot up through the pipeline directly into the P66 coker unit in Rodeo. The rest will barrel up California in rolling bomb trains on a train track ….near you.
For a CRUDE’S more lengthy analysis of the rather surreal hearing: https://crockett-rodeo-united.com/p66-propane-project/
Two reporters were present at the hearing. Here are their takes:
Jean Tepperman, East Bay Express February 5, 2015
Tom Lochner, Contra Costa Times February 4, 2015
Editor’s note: If you think ConocoPhillips treats people in Rodeo and Crockett like dirt, wait until you read how they treat ranchers up in the Bakken Crude territory of North Dakota.
By Deborah Sontag, New York Times (November 23, 2014)
https://crockett-rodeo-united.com/?p=597&preview=true&preview_id=597
Crockett-Rodeo United to Defend the Environment 