Some New Jersey residents concerned about dangers of freight trains carrying toxic chemicals through state

NEW YORK — As we noticed when a prepare derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, in February, one accident can influence a complete group.

Trains carrying equally poisonous chemical substances journey by means of New Jersey day-after-day, so CBS2’s Christine Sloan dug deeper into the dangers and the push to forestall one other environmental catastrophe.

Throughout the Backyard State, freight trains with tank vehicles in between different rail vehicles roll by means of neighborhoods day-after-day.

“It is dubbed ‘bomb trains’ if it’s a flammable and potential explosive materials,” stated Tracy Carluccio, deputy director of the Delaware Riverkeeper Community. “Vinyl chloride. It will have ethanol, which is very flammable. It will have crude oil.”

Carluccio, an environmental activist, has spent a profession monitoring the trains that she says journey over 1,000 miles of freight strains in New Jersey, going by playgrounds, faculties, properties, parks, leisure fields and residences.

“We’re essentially the most densely populated state within the nation, so there may be actually no place protected in New Jersey from the potential of a risk of disaster,” she stated.

Fiery East Palestine photos have been a chilling reminder of the 2012 New Jersey prepare derailment within the city of Paulsboro down south. Residents have been evacuated after 20,000 gallons of vinyl chloride have been launched from a ruptured tanker.

Vinyl chloride is identical chemical Norfolk Southern deliberately burned in East Palestine to keep away from an explosion. A New York Occasions report says the derailed trains in each East Palestine and Paulsboro have been headed to the identical southern New Jersey plant that makes plastic utilized in PVC flooring.

“We’re scared,” activist Paula Rogovin stated.

Rogovin lives by freight tracks in Teaneck, and she or he says hazardous chemical substances come by means of her city on rails, too.

“This space is in what we name the blast zone, the evacuation zone of this rail monitor,” she stated.

The content material of rail vehicles isn’t simply identifiable to the common particular person. First responders use a guidebook to determine the placards and transport labels on parked tanker vehicles.

CBS2 discovered placard quantity 1075 for flammable fuel, poisonous and risky phenol molten labeled 2312, and corrosive detachable vinyl with an ID variety of 1805, as effectively different placards indicating flammable materials.

The Federal Railroad Administration requires hazmat vehicles be placarded so first responders know what they’re dealing in a catastrophe, however Homeland Safety considerations make it tough for the general public to simply perceive the data, which is on-line.

“The general public is saved from figuring out what’s in these rail vehicles by authorities requirements after which additionally by the businesses themselves,” Carluccio stated.

“We would like the primary responders to be alerted what’s in these trains earlier than they arrive by means of,” Rogovin stated.

Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw testifying at a March Senate listening to stated his firm is coaching first responders to make use of an app which supplies tips about find out how to determine rail tank automotive contents. He additionally apologized for the East Palestine derailment, promising help however reiterating, “We’re a protected railroad. The variety of derailments on Norfolk Southern final yr was the bottom within the final 20 years.”

Federal Railroad Administration information present most trains carrying hazardous materials arrive safely and with out incident.

The truth is, in keeping with the Bureau of Transportation, vehicles have been chargeable for 94% of accidents involving hazardous supplies in 2022, whereas trains have been simply over 1%.

“Rail is by far the most secure method to transfer items on land, particularly hazardous supplies,” stated Ian Jeffries, the president of the Affiliation of American Railroads.

However activists like Rogovin say it takes only one accident to devastate a complete group.

“Extraordinarily terrified as a result of what’s in these trains is poisonous,” she stated.

The  Nationwide Transportation Security Board’s preliminary investigation says an overheated wheel bearing induced the East Palestine derailment, not human error.