The topic of oil trains is almost as messy as the oil they carry. Now, 19-year-old college sophomore Alana Fiero is publicly calling out government officials to “stop dragging their feet” and do something about the issue.
“It’s easy to shake it off and pretend an accident like this won’t happen near you, but the reality is they can and will destroy communities if we don’t act now,” said Fiero in the video “How Oil Trains Impact Small Communities,” published Aug. 5 on YouTube by Fiero.
A student at Pennsylvania State University, Fiero wrote, produced and edited the video while interning this summer at the state affiliate of the National Wildlife Federation, Environmental Advocates of New York. The video, as well as a blog from Fiero, can be found on its website.
As she points out, should an oil train spill occur in Voorheesville, the local EMS, Fire Department, elementary school, a daycare center and some local businesses would be destroyed, and many lives would be lost. The creek supplying water to the many homeowners in Voorheesville that use wells would also be contaminated, leaving environmental damage that would take decades to correct.
The message Fiero is sending by pointing out these facts is clear–stricter safety measures are necessary to prevent disaster.
Small towns sitting along rail lines are the victims in the oil train debate. Though the video shows the devastating effects a spill would have on Fiero‘s hometown of Voorheesville, these same effects could be seen in any of the small towns oil trains pass through.
Just two years ago in Quebec, 47 lives were lost after an oil train explosion. The blast radius reached over half a mile. An increasing rate of these explosions has occurred in recent years as hydrofracking has grown in operation. Trains carrying the crude oil produced by hydrofracking travel through many small towns on their journeys from western states and Canada to various shipping ports like the one in Albany.
Less severe crashes have occurred in nearby towns like Selkirk, Schoharie, Montgomery, Kingston and West Nyack in the past two years. These crashes thankfully did not result in loss of lives or environmental damage.
Albany County Legislator Herb Reilly (D- District 33) and Voorheesville Mayor Robert Conway are also featured in the video, speaking out for increased restrictions.
“You would probably be surprised what actually travels through the village that people aren’t paying attention to or aren’t aware of,” said Conway.
Albany County Executive Dan McCoy is one of only a few public officials nationally who have spoken about this issue. As such, he has spoken on many national talk shows and radio shows advocating for more regulations on oil train travel, and hopes that other counties across the country will follow his lead in restricting oil trains.
“I didn’t go into this to be the national person talking about crude oil, but no one was doing anything about it… No one’s really made the hard stance that we’ve made in Albany County,” said McCoy. “Oil is above me. It’s not like I deal with oil on a daily basis. But I’ve learned a lot about the railroad industry.”
In April, five state agencies delivered an oil train report ordered by Gov. Andrew Cuomo. The report called for minor regulations, but largely shifted responsibility of regulation to the federal government and local counties.
State officials have increased inspections of the two companies that transport crude oil through the port of Albany, but did not include any new laws restricting the movement of oil trains.
In early 2014, a law was passed in the Albany County Legislature, which imposes a moratorium on the amount of crude oil that could be processed at the Albany port, and fines railroad companies who fail to report oil spills in Albany County within 30 minutes.“The county is taking good steps in trying to alert people of what oil train explosions looks like. These oil trains are ticking time bombs,” said Albany Legislator Herb Reilly.
Still, critics would rather see a ban of crude oil altogether. The feasibility of this, however, is unlikely.
Others have also pointed to the type of train being transported as another culprit, while still more have pointed to fatigue of workers. Many of the trains, as well as the tracks carrying them are decades old, and conductors are only restricted to working 430 hours per month, versus the 100 hours, which pilots are restricted to.
Thus far, train companies have been uncooperative in local efforts to restrict and manage their travel. Fiero’s video shows just one instance of this, which some have interpreted as an instance of fossil fuel industry influencing decision makers in higher government
When residents of the Town of Voorheesville noticed an increasing amount of trains moving through the village in 2013, the Town Board attempted to create a quiet zone by the train crossing in town, requiring trains to only whistle in the event of an emergency.
To do so, two more gate crossings needed to be added to the two already in place at the crossing, in order to reduce the risk of car on train collisions. These efforts were slowed by lack of response from CSX.
After months of delay, an engineer then informed the town that the creation of these two gates would cost three times more than he originally stated, according to Steven Steven Schreiber, chairman of the Voorheesville Quiet Zone Committee. For Fiero, this instance is another reminder of how difficult the fight for increased oil train regulation will be.
“As I look around my hometown of Voorheesville… I am now even more aware of the constant threat we all face every single day,” said Fiero. “I hope this video will open your eyes, too.”
To learn more about the Enviornmental Advocates of New York visit www.eany.org.
