When 14 tanker cars derailed and exploded Monday near tiny Mount Carbon, W.Va., neighbors likened the fireball to a scene from the apocalypse. It was “like something biblical, or wrath-of-God-type stuff,” one resident said.
In fact, the oil spill and fire on the banks of the Kanawha River was the latest occurrence of a type of accident that US officials say is becoming distressingly common. Federal agencies are documenting a dramatic rise in the number of rail mishaps involving oil tankers in the last three years, as North American producers scramble to find ways to transport surging oil output to markets.
The fiery explosion of oil-laden CSX tanker cars along a snowy stretch of south-central West Virginia came two days after a similar incident in eastern Ontario and follows a year that shattered all previous records for rail accidents involving shipments of petroleum products.
More than 141 “unintentional releases” were reported from railroad tankers in 2014, an all-time high and a nearly six-fold increase over the average of 25 spills per year during the period from 1975 to 2012, according to records of the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration. The year 2013 had fewer accidents but a much larger volume of spilled crude:1.4 million gallons, an amount that exceeded the total for all spills since record-keeping began in 1975.
The increase adds yet another dimension to the controversy about the construction of oil pipelines such as the Keystone XL. Oil industry advocates contend that pipelines are safer than rail for moving flammable petroleum, while opponents say pipelines tend to experience much larger spills. The latest spill also highlights well-documented shortcomings in the local preparedness for accidents involving hazardous rail cargo, safety experts say.
“Back-to-back fiery derailments involving crude oil trains should be an unmistakable wake-up call to our political leaders,” said Mollie Matteson, a senior scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity, an Arizona-based environmental group.
The toll from the latest disaster is far from clear. Governor Earl Ray Tomblin declared a state of emergency in two West Virginia counties as firefighters and hazmat crews worked for a second day Tuesday to control the fire and contain an oil spill that contaminated a small creek and threatened to spread to the Kanawha River, a source of drinking water for cities and towns downstream. Nearly 2,500 people were evacuated when portions of the 109-car train derailed and then caught fire in a rural area southeast of Charleston.
Only one injury was reported, but a nearby house was destroyed as one tanker after another exploded, creating columns of smoke and flame that could be seen for miles. A CSX spokesman had no immediate explanation for the accident but confirmed that leaking oil had already reached one of Kanawha’s tributaries.
“Fires around some of the cars will be allowed to burn out,” the company said in a statement.
Transportation experts have long complained about inadequate oversight and gaps in local preparedness for such accidents. But CSX officials disclosed Tuesday that the tankers that caught fire in West Virginia bore the latest design features.