Why regulations matter? Environmental disaster in Ohio
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Gen. J. Puskar / AP |
On the 3rd of February a freight train carrying hazardous materials derailed in the town of East Palestine, Ohio. The train was operated by Norfolk Southern, the largest railroad company in the North East of the United States, responsible for 45,000 km of railway in 22 states. The train, with reporting number 32N, was 2.8 km long, consisting of 150 cars, 20 of which carried hazardous materials. 51 of these cars derailed, and 11 were tank cars, that dumped almost 400,000 litres of chemicals, such as vinyl chloride and butyl acrylate, into the surrounding environment. The derailed cars caught fire and burned for two days. Five of the cars containing vinyl chloride remained intact, however, officials were concerned about a potential explosion. Residents within a three-kilometre radius were evacuated and controversially, Norfolk Southern emergency crews began a controlled burn of the vinyl chloride gas. This decision has been criticised as reckless because the company seemingly disregarded possible alternatives, possibly being motivated by a desire to have the railroad open again as quickly as possible, rather than by what would be safest. A visible symbol of this questionable decision-making is the huge black cloud of smoke and toxic gas released from the crash site. As a result of burning the vinyl chloride, large quantities of hydrogen chloride and phosgene were released into the air, the latter was used as a chemical warfare agent in World War I. This questionable decision-making is a theme that repeats itself throughout the whole story.
The state of the rail industry
The majority of railway traffic in the US is freight transport, contrary to most other parts of the world where a larger share consists of passenger transit. Also, unlike the American road network, American freight railways are owned and maintained by private companies. This means that the government and regulation agencies have less control over how freight is transported. American railways have experienced an average of 1475 derailments per year between 2005 and 2021. In 2019 this figure was 1338 derailments for 777 million kilometres travelled. In the same year, the EU experienced only 73 derailments for almost 4 times the distance travelled and Japan only had 9. While the overall number of derailments hasn’t increased in the past few decades, the number of derailments of trains carrying hazardous materials has. Clearly, this is an issue that hasn’t been addressed.
In 2014 following a series of derailments of trains carrying petroleum, the Obama administration pushed to pass legislation that required railway operators to use newer and safer electronically controlled pneumatic brakes (ECP) on all trains carrying hazardous materials. After extensive lobbying by the railroad companies, the bill was reduced to only include trains carrying flammable materials, like crude oil and ethanol, but not the type of chemicals and hazardous gases that 32N was transporting through Ohio. Up to this point, the vast majority of freight trains still used air brake systems that were first developed in the 19th century which are reliable, easy to maintain and cheap but don’t stop a train very quickly, especially when it is several kilometres long. Modern ECP systems stop a train much more quickly as every car brakes simultaneously upon receiving an electronic signal. These regulations were repealed under the Trump administration, whose regulators were much more lenient to the railroad lobby who argued these brakes weren’t economically justified. Had 32N been equipped with these modern brakes, the scale of the disaster could have been greatly reduced.
No need for safety
Just like any corporation, Norfolk Southern is focused on reducing costs. As well as resisting modernisation of its rolling stock, it also spends a significant part of its resources, working to minimise the number of workers it needs to employ. Railroad operators are running increasingly long trains maintained and operated by fewer and fewer workers. In the past 20 years, Norfolk Southern has reduced its workforce by ⅓ while doubling its profits. The workers who remain are forced to work almost constantly, with no sick leave and long hours. Just last year the Biden administration blocked a strike of 115,000 rail workers who were demanding paid sick leave. These poor working conditions and understaffing lead to mistakes in an industry where accidents can cost lives. There is actually no federal regulation regarding the minimum number of crewmembers on a freight train. Union contracts usually require two but some operators have pushed to reduce this to one. Rail workers have repeatedly warned federal regulators that the company regularly disregards safety rules.
As well as pushing back on safety rules and cutting its workforce, Norfolk Southern also employs a practice called Precision Scheduled Railroading, which is a product of just-in-time logistics which, nowadays, is prevalent in all industries. PSR aims to minimise any wait times in the journey of a freight train. As you can suspect this comes with some consequences, if the company has demonstrated that it isn’t too concerned about safety. In the case of the derailment of 32N, it is likely that a lack of safety checks or ignoring concerns of crewmembers, was the main culprit. It is not only rail crews that have faced staffing cuts in recent years but also rail yard workers, i.e. those that check to make sure rail cars are working properly and in a safe condition before they are picked up by a train. Norfolk Southern currently recommends that no more than 90 seconds be spent inspecting each car which obviously isn’t enough time to thoroughly inspect a car that is 30 m long. There have also been numerous reports of the company pressuring inspectors not to report minor defects in order to save time. Norfolk Southern uses special sensors in its railroads called “defect detectors”, designed to warn of potential issues on a train such as overheating bearings. However, in a worker complaint from last year, it is alleged that the crew of a 241 car train travelling through Ohio, which stopped on a defect detector, was told by a company dispatcher that they didn’t have to “walk the train” as the crew of a train passing the other way could do it instead. Workers called this an unsafe practice and this is just one of many similar complaints of workers being told to carry on when they had safety concerns. While this has been happening, Norfolk Southern has only increased its profits and spent billions on stock buybacks for its investors. This is true for all of the large railroad companies.
What’s happened in Ohio?
Let’s circle back to the case of 32N. This derailment was caused by an overheating wheel bearing that caused one of the axles to fail. By the time the crew were alerted by the onboard safety systems, it was already too late and they couldn’t bring the train to a stop. The train passed 3 trackside sensors with an overheated bearing, but the alarm was only triggered once the bearing had overheated by 123 ℃. This raises questions over whether the alert systems used by Norfolk Southern are sufficient if they didn’t raise the alarm when the train passed an earlier sensor 30 km prior, showing that the bearing had already overheated by 40℃. Based on other derailments and worker’s complaints that I have discussed earlier, one could assume that Norfolk Southern deliberately sets the thresholds too high on its alarm systems so as to minimise stoppages that could harm profits. 32N was also not classified as a High-Hazard Flammable Train, thanks to limited regulations that were willed into existence by railroad lobbiers.
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The long-term extent of the environmental damage and damage to people’s health is not yet fully known. As of now, several things have happened. Some chemicals and gases have been released into the air, water and soil of East Palestine. Apart from the 5 cars worth of the carcinogenic vinyl chloride that were deliberately released into the air creating a huge, black mushroom cloud that loomed over the town for a whole day, train cars carrying butyl acrylate, ethylhexyl acrylate and isobutylene also lost the entirety of or part of their payloads. Butyl acrylate causes irritation to the eyes and skin, breathing problems and even lung failure after long enough exposure. If it is swallowed - easily done if it has made it into the water supply - medical attention is needed immediately. Ethylhexyl acrylate has many of the same characteristics and isobutylene is a gas that can cause dizziness or even unconsciousness when inhaled. Butyl and ethylhexyl acrylate were detected in the waterways after the accident.
Since the derailment locals have reported sick and dead animals, irritation to eyes and breathing problems and large numbers of dead fish have been observed floating in local streams. Several lawsuits have been filed against Norfolk Southern, one of which alleges more than 1,000 people have been affected by exposure to the chemicals. In a letter to the Department of Transportation, a rail workers’ union says that many employees working at the accident site “reported that they continue to experience migraines and nausea, days after the derailment, and they all suspect that they were willingly exposed to these chemicals at the direction of NS”. Norfolk Southern has pledged $6.5 million to the families affected in East Palestine but has simultaneously announced a $7.5 billion stock buyback program - a striking dissonance.
What have we learned?
In most industries in the US, there is a lack of worker and environmental protection, especially when compared to the standards that we have in the European Union. Clearly, the situation is no different when it comes to the American railroad industry. Railroad operators have been given free reign, they invested heavily in lobbying and have increasingly pushed the envelope in regard to labour and safety laws so as to increase their profit margins. Rail is by far the most environmentally friendly mode of transport and should be invested in so that it can achieve its potential. However, any environmental benefits from its lack of emissions are negated if trains carrying hazardous materials are regularly derailing because of a lack of regulation. The current democratic administration in the US has made various promises on environmental protection but currently seems to be indecisive and regularly bends to the will of the companies that cause these disasters. To effectively protect the environment certain rules need to be established to stop people, companies and entire industries damaging it.
For further reading on the subject of railroad companies lobbying Congress, I highly recommend reading Open Secrets’ excellent article and research on the matter.
Author: Alex Beaumont
Editor: Maciej Więckowski
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