Reap the profit, share the risk

In an ideal world there would be no need to transport dangerous or flammable chemicals through Iowa or any other state.

Here in reality, however, officials have for years been aware of such shipments, and recently learned how often large quantities of highly flammable Bakken crude oil regularly are traveling through nine Iowa counties. Which begs the question: How do we prepare for possible incidents and who should pay the bill?

Five Eastern Iowa counties are exposed to trains hauling 1 million gallons or more of Bakken crude roughly twice each year. Four western Iowa counties are exposed to at least that much an average of three times per week. Smaller shipments - exempt from federal reporting requirements - may be moving more frequently.

The reasons behind the disclosure are straightforward: This crude is more volatile than others and sometimes has been shipped in outdated tank cars vulnerable to puncture. A string of accidents have occurred.

The worst thus far claimed the lives of 47 Canadians, but each incident has negatively impacted the environment and resulted in the deployment of taxpayer-funded emergency management teams.

While few enterprises can be conducted with zero public risk, the potential, lethal devastation associated with these shipments is reason they and similar transports should be subject to higher scrutiny and held to a higher standard of safety.

For a start, we encourage lawmakers to prohibit the use of outdated and dangerous tanker cars for these shipments.

Beyond that, we believe the companies profiting from the crude and its transport should bear the lion's share of the cost of emergency preparedness and response they may require.

Given that a single incident could sap a county's emergency management budget, especially in Iowa's smaller, rural counties, the oil companies and railroads involved in transporting Bakken crude should offer free response training and any specialized equipment needed to respond to an incident, should one arise.

Affected counties can help mitigate expense by developing regional plans for responding to potential incidents, but it's too much to expect them to bear the cost alone.

Those who are profiting from these potentially dangerous shipments shouldn't do so at taxpayers's expense.

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