Interactive map showing whether you are in an oil train blast zone

[eridani]

http://www.takepart.com/article/2015/02/17/are-you-living-oil-train-blast-zone?cmpid=tpdaily-eml-2015-2-17





http://explosive-crude-by-rail.org/





After Latest US Oil Train Disaster, Expert Says Tens of Millions Living Inside 'Blast Zone'


http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/02/17/after-latest-us-oil-train-disaster-expert-says-tens-millions-living-inside-blast


Fires continued to smolder Tuesday morning as emergency crews assessed the damage after a train carrying Bakken crude oil derailed and exploded near the Mt. Carbon area of Fayette County, West Virginia.

Roughly 2,400 people have been evacuated or displaced by the derailment, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, as the fire burned power lines, knocking out power to roughly 900 Appalachian Power customers.

According to Kanawha County Manager Jennifer Sayre, the derailed CSX Corp oil train was hauling 109 cars—107 of which were carrying 33,000 gallons each of crude oil from the Bakken fields in North Dakota to a terminal in Yorktown, Virginia.

As the second oil train disaster in as many days, environmentalists and safety advocates say that the incident highlights an urgent need for significant safety reform

[Mnemosyne]

1. K&R nt

[Sherman A1]

2. I already know

the trains travel right by the building where I work. I would say no more than 200 feet if that far away. If one of them goes, while I am working I will no longer be posting the Daily Holidays in the Lounge.

[malaise]

3. Rachel last night

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/watch/nd-oil-train-safeguards-too-little-too-late-400706115523

[Not Sure]

9. Rachel gets it right

The problem isn't just the railcars - DOT111A cars have transported crude and ethanol and other flammable liquids safely for many years - it's the fact that these cars are being used for a load they aren't designed to handle, namely highly volatile gases that are mixed in the crude. Gases such as these are supposed to be separated and transported under pressure in cars designed to withstand the higher pressures and provide thermal protection for the volatile load. As long as these gases remain part of the crude oil shipped in ordinary or even the "beefed-up" versions of the DOT111A tank cars, small derailments will continue to be catastrophic.

To put it in layman's terms, loading this unprocessed crude in DOT111A tank cars is like transporting propane in a gas can. You don't do that. It's stupid. You are begging for an incident. And this is what the oil companies are getting away with.

Separate the commodities and load them appropriately and the risk decreases dramatically. Railroads move these commodities (and far more dangerous ones like anhydrous ammonia and chlorine) through major cities to destinations both within and beyond the population centers without incident every day. The reason for that success is the fact that the products are loaded appropriately and handled accordingly. When there is a derailment it's very rarely catastrophic. These improperly loaded cars remain an accident waiting to happen.

[malaise]

10. So what if they kill people or destroy the environment

They are enriching themselves and their shareholders

The wreckage is still smouldering.

[charles d]

4. Very Useful

Thankyou for posting!

[ColesCountyDem]

5. I live 300 feet from a bust N/S rail line.

23 trains per-day. If one ever derails and explodes, I'm screwed.

[underpants]

6. There was another one?

Sorry out of the loop the last few days.

I thought the refinery in Yorktown had closed.

[Divernan]

7. I'm literally next door to the edge of the evacuation zone.

My next-door neighbor is in the zone. However since I live on a dead end street, I'd have to drive into the heart of the evacuated zone to get out of the zone.

Besides which, the zones on this map reflect entirely arbitrary, bureaucratic choices of 1/2 mile and 1 mile zones, but in reality evacuations have gone out 1.5 miles, and then you have to allow for wind direction.

In my community, the red zone includes entire small town business districts, municipal buildings, police departments, EMS rescue facilities, schools, hospitals, senior high-rise apartment buildings - some of which are literally within 100 feet of the rail lines.

Maybe no one could have imagined commercial airliners being hijacked and flown into the Twin Towers, but you'd have to be fucking blind not to see the probabilities of more bomb trains exploding in highly populated areas.

And about 100 feet on the other side of these rail lines in my town? The Allegheny River, just upstream from the Ohio River.

[JackInGreen]

8. It's small consolation in general

but it would appear we're just outside of the yellow and on the other side of a REALLY big hill.

[Divernan]

11. How is Big Insurance responding to such claims?

I'm going to be checking this out with my homeowner's & auto insurance agents, and suggest you all do the same. Small business owners should do the same. Spread the word to friends, relatives and business associates, everyone - and put the pressure on our generally do-nothing state representatives and senators, as well as federal congress persons.

[Scuba]

12. Direct link to the map ...

http://explosive-crude-by-rail.org/

[pipi_k]

13. Just

a lot of boxcars and containers for new vehicles.

No oil going by.

Actually, the rail line going through my area was once a busy place for passengers and to transport emery from the many emery mines.

[MineralMan]

14. I'm outside of the danger zone - just.

I live in St. Paul, MN. Most of the trains carrying Bakken crude pass right through the downtown area of St. Paul. There's a huge rail yard there, right next to the Mississippi River. From there, they go in all directions. The train that just derailed and burned went through here, too. Most of them do.

People here are completely unaware of this oil train traffic. I live two blocks from a Union Pacific rail line that ends up in Chicago, but no unit oil trains use that route, thank goodness.

[VScott]

15. Seems like a prime target for a terrorist attack (domestic or foreign).

And with no way to adequately guard thousands of miles of tracks.