Study recommends ways to better prevent, respond to tanker disasters

Commissioned last year after two trains carrying crude oil derailed and erupted in flames near Dubuque and just after leaving Iowa, a government report released Friday outlines steps that could be taken to alleviate such calamities in the state.

The study, released by the Iowa Department of Transportation and Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management Department, was started last July to find ways of reducing chances of the emergencies and helping communities better prepare to respond if they happen.

Tamara Nicholson, director of the Office of Rail Transportation with the Iowa DOT, said the study - which pulled information from producers and shippers of ethanol and crude oil, railroad officials, emergency crews and federal regulators - is believed to be the first of its kind in the nation.

'Our approach to this is unique in that we brought those different stakeholders together to identify what the issues are and then identify what steps and actions we want to take in the future to improve things,” she said.

'We wanted to find out what was being shipped and what preparedness, planning and response could be done if there is an incident,” she said. 'And what can we do to make it better?”

(See the study at iowadot.gov/iowarail.)

In 2014, more than 67,000 carloads of crude oil and about 140,000 carloads of ethanol were shipped through Iowa. That makes for only about 3 percent of the nearly 7 million railcars that traveled through the state that year, according to data provided by the Iowa DOT.

While Iowa produces 26 percent of the nation's ethanol, all the crude transported in the state comes from and is refined elsewhere.

The study showed that while no crude oil was being transported by rail through Cedar Rapids and Iowa City, there are five railways that were transporting ethanol through the Corridor.

By looking at the routes, the study provides a county-by-county vulnerability assessment to determine the impact of a railcar incident, such as a derailment, if one were to occur.

Larger populations, proximity of railroads to urban areas, vulnerable environments and total amount of railroads contributed to a county's rating.

A higher rating doesn't mean an incident is more likely to occur - but rather measures what the potential impact could be from one.

In this area, Linn, Johnson, Benton, Black Hawk and Muscatine counties have the highest level of what the report calls 'sensitivity” - as do other of Iowa's most populous counties.

Susan Dixon, planning and training bureau chief with the Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management Department, said the study is to be used as a tool for various stakeholders to identify areas of needed training or collaboration.

'We have to always plan for any eventuality,” she said. 'It's really about building relationships and making sure our preparedness systems are the best they can be.”

Among the study's many findings and recommendations for improvement:

l Iowa should prioritize the risks of its at-grade crossings and work with railroads and local governments to come up with an investment strategy to address improvements to highest risk ones first.

l Many local government emergency managers juggle several duties and some, particularly in rural areas, are part-time. The study recommends that neighboring counties work together to share their resources.

l Emergency managers noted that railway representatives do not attend local emergency planning meetings, but some ethanol plant representatives do. The report said the local organizations should 'consider actively seeking attendance by railroads and shippers.”

Just last year, two derailments and fires involving crude oil tankers happened in or near Eastern Iowa.

Fifteen tank cars derailed north of Dubuque in February 2015, with three of the oil containers bursting into flames and three more sliding into the Mississippi River.

A month later, several rail cars erupted in flames following a 21-tank car derailment near Galena, Ill., just after the train has crossed the Mississippi River out of Iowa.

The U.S. Department of Transportation has pointed to a particular tank car called the DOT-111 as a culprit in recent explosions and spills during derailments across North America. One of the most notable occurred July 6, 2013 in Lac-Megantic, Quebec, when 47 people died when a runaway train of crude oil exploded.

Last July, the U.S. DOT proposed a phase out of the DOT-111s for carrying some flammable liquids, including crude oil and ethanol, unless the tanks are retrofitted.

l Comments: (319) 339-3175; mitchell.schmidt@thegazette.com