Newly released data shows heavy oil train traffic

According to data released last week by BNSF Railway, more than a dozen trains carrying volatile crude oil from the Bakken oil fields in North Dakota and Montana travel across Montana each week en route to out-of-state refineries.

The information was released June 25 in response to a request by the Associated Press. BNSF Railway, which provided the information to the state of Montana following an order by the U.S. Department of Transportation, had requested that the information not be made public, but Gov. Steve Bullock refused, citing the state’s open records law.

The shipments became an issue of rising concern after several fiery and explosive derailments in North Dakota, Alabama, New Brunswick and last July in Quebec, where a runaway oil train crashed in the small village of Lac-Megantic and killed 47 people.

Light, sweet crude from the Bakken has been involved in most of the major accidents, as the crude-by-rail industry rapidly expanded during the past several years. Each oil train with 100 tanker cars can move 3 million gallons of crude oil. Oil from the Bakken fields travels by train on average about 1,600 miles to its destination.

The newly released data offers the most detailed insights to date on the increasing volumes being moved across North America by rail in the wake of the domestic shale oil boom. Crude oil shipments by rail in the U.S. topped 110,000 carloads in the first quarter of 2014 — the highest volume ever moved by rail.

Many oil trains pass through densely urbanized areas where the consequences of an accident would be most severe. BNSF Railway, for example, reported moving as many as 27 oil trains in a week through Chicago’s Cook County and 13 in a week through King County, which includes Seattle.

In May, U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx ordered railroads to provide shipment information to states, saying it would help first responders and other emergency officials prepare for an accident. His order covered all shipments of a million gallons or more.

Railroad companies that fail to comply with Foxx’s order are subject to a fine of $175,000 per day and are prohibited from hauling crude oil from the Bakken until they do so.

The companies cited security reasons in an effort to prevent public disclosure of the information, but Kevin Thompson of the Federal Railroad Administration said officials consulted with national security experts before determining the railroad disclosures do not contain sensitive information.

BNSF representatives have agreed that it’s important for emergency officials to have the information so they can plan and train properly, but they urged states to use “discretion” regarding the public distribution of the data.

California, New Jersey, Minnesota and Colorado agreed to requests from BNSF Railway, CSX and Union Pacific to keep the shipping information confidential. Officials in North Dakota and other states cited their state’s open-records laws and refused to keep the information away from the public.

Foxx’s order applied only to Bakken crude and not shale oil from other parts of the country. That’s raised concern from some members in Congress that the government might not be doing enough to prevent accidents.

In a letter to Oregon Democratic Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, Acting National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Christopher Hart noted that all crude oil shipments are flammable and could damage the environment in a spill.

Wyden and Merkley relayed this news to Foxx in a June 26 letter and pointed out that Foxx’s order did not provide information to emergency personnel around the U.S. about oil shipments that do not originate in the Bakken. They asked Foxx to expand his order to include crude oil shipments from across the U.S. and Canada.

Wyden and Merkley also asked Foxx to lower the 1 million gallon threshold of his order to include oil trains hauling smaller amounts.

“With the exception of the Lac-Megantic accident, every accident involving crude oil, ethanol and other flammable materials since 2006 has resulted in a hazardous materials release of less than 1 million gallons,” they told Foxx in their letter.