‘We got really lucky’: Government officials discuss aftermath of Custer oil train fire
Elected officials representing Whatcom County were thankful that an oil train derailment and fire last week in Custer was minor compared to horrific incidents over the past decade, and they hoped that it will offer lessons on how to make the railroad industry safer and ensure that methods are in place to bill those responsible for cleanup costs.
Accidents of this type often require lengthy investigations and it’s too early to discuss policy changes until the cause is known, said 40th District state Rep. Alex Ramel, D-Bellingham.
“They’re thoughtful. They’re careful. They always tell you how we could have done better. It’s why we have fewer airplane crashes,” Ramel told The Bellingham Herald.
For Whatcom County Councilman Rud Browne, however, the issue is liability.
Brown told The Herald that he’s pressing for language in new rules governing heavy industry at Cherry Point that would guarantee local governments won’t be left holding the bag in the event of a catastrophe such as the 2013 derailment and fire that obliterated the Quebec town of Lac-Mégantic.
More than 30 buildings were destroyed and 47 people were killed.
That train was also hauling the highly flammable Bakken crude involved in Tuesday’s incident in Custer.
“If that derailment had happened in downtown Bellingham and the tank cars had exploded, the damage would be in the hundreds of millions of dollars,” Browne said. “If you don’t know who’s going to pay that bill, then the answer is it’s us.”
Crews continued Saturday, Dec. 26, to remove crude oil from the remaining tank cars, in preparation for their eventual removal from the site, according to BNSF Railway spokeswoman Courtney Wallace. The cause of the derailment is still under investigation, she wrote in an email.
More work ahead
U.S. Rep Rick Larsen, D-Everett, said in a statement that he worked with the Obama administration to make the transport of oil by rail safer.
“Clearly there may be more work to do. I will continue to monitor the situation and await the findings of the National Transportation Safety Board’s investigation,” Larsen said.
Lummi Nation said in a statement that “there has been good cooperation” with state and federal officials but that its members need more training in how to address such a disaster.
“Lummi Nation Natural Resources have employees that are qualified to deploy oil spill response equipment, (but) we cannot handle the actual oil. More training is needed to handle hazardous materials. We are fortunate this didn’t happen on the river or in the bay and will continue to follow the incident, investigation and results,” tribal officials said.
Oil train safety
About 20 billion gallons of oil moves through Washington state by ship, train and pipeline every year, according to state Department of Ecology data.
There were 1,848 rail accidents nationwide in 2019, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics.
Of those incidents, 319 involved petroleum products moved by rail, according to the U.S. DOT’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.
Damages totaled more than $20 million and there were five injuries and no deaths in 2019.
A 2017 Associated Press investigation found thousands of defects along oil train routes nationwide.
Further, there have been recent incidents of terrorism targeting oil trains, including the arrest of two women on suspicion of trying to derail trains near Bellingham.
‘Really lucky’
Authorities have refused to speculate about the cause of Tuesday’s incident, where seven tank cars in a 108-car oil train derailed and five caught afire.
Flames were extinguished within hours through the combined efforts of Whatcom County firefighters and specially trained fire crews from the two oil refineries at Cherry Point.
Whatever the cause, it could have been worse, Ramel said.
No one was injured, no private property was damaged and state Ecology officials said there was no widespread environmental effects — even though cleanup efforts are ongoing and officials haven’t said how much oil spilled.
“We got really lucky,” said Ramel, who is also extreme oil field director for the environmental advocacy group Stand.Earth..
“This was an isolated area and it was close to crews that had trained very effectively. We want to make sure that if this happens again we’re not just counting on luck,” he said.
New industry rules
Browne said that the County Council will begin discussing changes to zoning in the Cherry Point industrial area in early 2021 and he wants language in the measure that requires the refineries to carry $100 million in insurance or assure the public in writing that it will pay costs related to a disaster.
Liability is often complicated in such cases because blame could fall on the refineries, the railroad, or the companies that own or lease the rail tank cars.
“If a rail car owner is found responsible for a wreck in downtown Bellingham, everybody’s going to say, ‘That’s not my check to write’,” he said. “That’s why I’ve been fighting so hard on this issue.”
This story was originally published December 27, 2020 at 9:00 AM.
