Eh, that's just freight in general and you can't really do much about that unless you want to start delaying trains a bunch given how exactly on time they need to be to keep all the supply chains moving. My issue is if your train is now a mile and a half or longer where you are at risk of coming to a complete stop while you're moving through a major intersection then that is a problem.
I worked in public accounting for a while and one of my clients was a partially owned subsidiary of NSC. The amount of money these fuckers print is nauseating. At one meeting, their VP of Accounting literally said that they have so much money they don't even know what to do with it.
they could be required to build tunnels and bridges to replace the level crossings, but that cuts into things like profits and dividends
It's a bit sensationalized. Journalist was in the back of Governor's press conference doing his own live report, disrupting the press conference.
The situation is contained, from an emergency perspective. No one knows what long term cleanup is needed yet. The situation was really bad at this time last week. The cars were burning and they evacuated a one mile radius. EPA officials then made the decision to burn the vinyl chloride to prevent it from exploding. That is the better of two really bad options. People have been back into homes since last week. Now they are assessing how far anything spread on the ground or into the ground.
Word is that the vinyl chloride story is just a cover for the fact that the tanker was actually carrying Skyline chili.
it's very dangerous to humans at 2 ppm. The OSHA permissible exposure limit (PEL) (values which are typically obnoxiously high or based on old science) is 0.1 ppm for an 8 hour work day. (meaning, not living somewhere breathing the air for 24 hours. Also, a worker, not a kid with asthma, or a pregnant mother, or an elderly person). The ACGIH threshold limit value (TLV) is 0.02 ppm. Again, for a worker. The fact that there's no data out there on what concentrations of phosgene, vinyl chloride, or any other chlorine based byproducts from the combustion of vinyl chloride (or anything else in those railcars) were in the atmosphere / remain in the atmosphere is an indictment of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (way too many industry hacks packed into that agency in my opinion)
I would assume there's independent environmental consultants out there taking samples of air and water right now downwind / downstream from this (either hired by someone or for their own curiosity / peace of mind), but who knows. Who fucking knows what's going on in that town and communities around the site -- seems like a pretty well organized coverup by the State of Ohio, but what the fuck is Pennsylvania doing?
Well, I think most of the poison gas used during World War 1 were heavier than air. Chlorine and phosgene definitely. They typically would dilute phosgene with chlorine because phosgene is much denser than chlorine. (Also, unless the dose a soldier got was very acute, it typically took at least 24 hours for someone to die from it) Mustard is actually a liquid, not a gas, so that used to sink in the trenches too.
This site is right on the PA border, with prevailing wind going into PA most of the time. The initial burn would have released into PA, but the fire has been out since mid week last week. US EPA gave the railroad one day to respond to a letter, generated after US EPA found contaminants in five tributaries into the Ohio River. They dumped a lot of water on this fire. The runoff is going to affect downstream.
https://response.epa.gov/site/site_profile.aspx?site_id=15933 Embedded in this link is a list of the stuff in each train car and includes what was burned (or is still burning) or released. No one is talking about the PVC and ethyl hexyl acrylates burning. Probably should.
Here are the site documents, including air sampling. https://response.epa.gov/site/doc_list.aspx?site_id=15933
Any chance that the mass die off of chuds will turn the voting district blue? I mean, aside from the impending hypoxia.
Where's the metals and dioxin testing data? Wouldn't be too worried about phosgene or hydrogen chloride now, a week after it burned. It's the environmentally persistent stuff produced from an open air burn of chlorine compounds that's the long term worry.
Scariest thing I remember watching when it comes to these gases is that video of a cop responding to a train derailment (shocker) involving an ammonia gas leak. Fucker barely made it 10 feet past the front of his car before he was dead
The OH6, which is where this derailment occurred, runs the PA and WV border. From 2008-2016, it went harder right than all other Congressional districts in the country. https://centerforpolitics.org/crystalball/articles/states-of-play-ohio/ In 2008, it was McCain +2, then Romney +12, then Trump +39, and now Trump +45.
My guess is that it’s all part of a plume that went into PA. The air evacuation zones were mostly PA. My understanding is that the town and residents are west of the derailment and upwind.
yeah, and I just don't trust EPA data. errr, "trust but verify" I guess. Ever since 9/11 and all the stupidity / junk science "all is well" bullshit* they were telling people about the dust from those towers, I've looked at any data they've released to the public with suspicion. *I had colleagues up there telling me how much of a contaminated shitshow lower Manhattan was in the days and weeks after the attacks. I basically refused to work there even though everyone up there was making a fortune. Same with after Katrina -- "OSHA standard free zones" when they started demolishing those buildings.
https://www.levernews.com/rail-companies-blocked-safety-rules-before-ohio-derailment/ This article does a really good job explaining what happened here from a historical perspective and how we dropped the ball in prevention.
In 2017, there was a warehouse fire in Parkersburg WV that took over a week to extinguish because the place was storing all kinds of plastics industry wastes. https://www.theintelligencer.net/ne...g-warehouse-fire-burning-for-days-almost-out/ One of the plaintiffs’ firms had its own air monitoring being done in Ohio and WV as the fire still burned. That situation carried particularite over the Ohio River into Ohio. Most of it stayed in WV though. In the current situation, at least one suit already has been filed in federal court last week. I’m sure someone already has taken samples.
Environmental disasters are just so hot right now https://www.wbrc.com/2023/01/18/moo...cuate-separate-their-families/?outputType=amp You can smell this shit every single day for the past few months in Birmingham which is about 20 miles away
NS has their own environmental engineer consultants doing the sampling and testing per US EPA, Ohio EPA, and RCRA guidelines. if this would’ve happened in PA the amount of testing and approvals needed for everything would’ve been staggering. this is going to end up being a $100mil+ fuck up for NS once you factor in total remediation. That’s not counting any law suits that come out from this as well edit: I’m sure there’s independent watchdog groups and probably some law firms fronting the bill for independent analysis for future lawsuits, but it’s mainly gonna be their contracted EE firm
Oh yeah I know PA got blasted by fallout, but the material is on Ohio soil so they’re having to follow Ohio EPA standards and not PA DEP (which I’ve found to be much more stringent.) it’s all moot though bc all this material is going to end up down in Emelle at $175/ton disposal cost
A coal seam under Centralia, PA caught fire in 1962 and evacuated the town. It’s still burning today. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centralia,_Pennsylvania
Doesn’t PA still have jurisdiction over any impacts in PA? Hydrologically, I’m not sure how this flows, but there is a great state park near here that connects to the Ohio River, so I hope this gets contained.
I’m not sure, but honestly wouldn’t be surprised if that were the case. I’m sure PA is going to make NS do some sort of cleanup in PA, and that is going to be a doozy. PA DEP is gonna make NS run full environmental evals for every thousand cubic yards of contamination, and it’s going to get real expensive real fast. No incinerators nearby have any available space, and the closest subtitle C outlet is down in Alabama.
https://www.levernews.com/rail-companies-blocked-safety-rules-before-ohio-derailment/ https://www.npr.org/2023/02/05/1154718234/mechanical-defect-ohio-train-derailment
The last hazardous waste incinerator built in Ohio is about 20 miles south, also on the PA border. Ohio passed a moratorium on new facilities in 1993 after it was built.