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State Of Emergency Declared As Another Oil/Gas Train Derails In Canada
Thirteen cars came off the tracks around 1 a.m. Saturday -- 9 of which were carrying liquefied petroleum gas and four that were carrying crude oil. The derailment prompted local officials to declare a state of emergency and the evacuation of the nearly hamlet of Gainford about 80km west of Edmonton. As AP reports, an eyewitness noted "the fireball was so big, it shot across both lanes of the Yellowhead (Highway)... there's fire on both sides." According to the latest reports, the train cars remain ablaze as the liquified hydrocarbons continue to leak. Parkland County police chief added "how it exploded and why is yet to be determined," but while only 2 injuries (CN employees) and no deaths have been reported, he noted "it's still a risky situation so we need to contain as much as possible and keep people far away." This explosion comes just 3 months after the disaster that too 47 lives in Lac-Megantic and once again raises questions over the safety of dramatically increased rail traffic from/to the Bakken.
Local News details:
More color from eyewtinesses:
Images of the scene:
The accident occurred at 1am and a helicpter captured the initial images...
and as day light arrived, the proximity to the freeway was evident...
The Freeway remains closed...
Emergency crews battled a massive fire Saturday after a Canadian National tanker train carrying oil and gas derailed west of Edmonton, Alberta, overnight. No injuries have been reported so far.
Canadian National spokesman Louis-Antoine Paquin said 13 cars — four carrying petroleum crude oil and nine loaded with liquified petroleum gas — came off the tracks around 1 a.m. local time in the hamlet of Gainford, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) from Edmonton. The entire community of roughly 100 people was evacuated.
...
The train was travelling from Edmonton to Vancouver, British Columbia, Paquin said.
The Transportation Safety Board said it is sending investigators to the scene.
Questions about the increasing transport of oil by rail in the U.S. and Canada were raised in July after an unattended train with 72 tankers of oil rolled into the small Quebec town of Lac-Megantic near the Maine border, derailing and triggering explosions that killed 47 people. The town's center was destroyed. The rail company's chairman blamed the train's operator for failing to set enough hand brakes.
Much of that increase is from oil produced in the Bakken region, a rock formation underlying portions of Montana and North Dakota in the U.S., and Saskatchewan and Manitoba in Canada.
The train that crashed in the small Quebec town was carrying oil from North Dakota to a refinery in New Brunswick, Canada.
The train, using DOT-111 railcars, was operated by a U.S. company, the Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway.
...
The fire is still burning (via CBC),
Although Mills initially told CBC News that two of the cars containing liquefied petroleum gas were on fire, a later news release by Evansburg RCMP stated that three cars — all containing LPG — had caught fire.
Officials told CBC that one of the three burning cars later exploded, and that another is now compromised.
Fire officials say they have little choice but to let the fire burn itself out.
Louis-Antoine Paquin, speaking for CN, said the four crude oil tankers are still intact.
“Right now, the idea is to remediate the situation and try to contain the fire,” said Paquin, who said the risk to the local community has been minimized as much as possible.
Questions over saefty remain (via CBC),
...
“This kind of disaster will become the new normal unless the federal government takes much more effective measures to improve oil transportation safety,” said Mike Hudema, speaking for Greenpeace.
“The truth is that the Harper government has become such a cheerleader for the petroleum industry that it is failing in its duty to protect our communities and the environment.
“This is the third major derailment in Alberta in the last few months. How many more will it take before Ottawa implements transportation safety regulations that were recommended more than a decade ago?"
In the first half of this year, U.S. railroads moved 178,000 carloads of crude oil. That's double the number during the same period last year and 33 times more than during the same period in 2009. The Railway Association of Canada estimates that as many as 140,000 carloads of crude oil will be shipped on Canada's tracks this year, up from 500 carloads in 2009.
Following the fatal Quebec derailment, Cynthia Quarterman, head of the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, has said the U.S. agency expects to publish draft regulations requiring that DOT-111 railcars be retrofitted to address safety concerns. The agency's proposal is intended to fix a dangerous design flaw in the rail cars, which are used to haul oil and other hazardous liquids throughout North America.
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Jeez ......it spread to both sides of the railbed and the highway.
BULLISH !
Quick, roll out the little smiling happy train character named Oiluymuch to be the cleanup mascot.
Being that Oilyumuch is Canadian, however, the smiling happy train character will have to be combined with a red maple leaf in some form or another, according to national law.
He will also have to be distinguishable from the smiling happy black blob character chewing up the forest and wrapping its arms around nothern Alberta known as Tarsandsyumuch
In in both cases, their rear is a picture of the queen (interpretation purposely left vague).
What a happy coincidence for the pro pipeline people.
The Lac Megantic tragedy is highly suspicious, involving unmanned engines coming off their brakes and rolling uncontrolled down an incline towards the town centre. It ocurred at a time when they were building political support for a new oil pipeline coming from west to east to the same refinery/port where the train was headed. The decision to build the new pipeline was announced less than 2 months after the tragedy.
Greens don't want to build the safer pipelines. We need to destroy the environment in order to save it.
There doesn't need to be conspiracy except one of colossal cheapness in respect for the companies that believe they can skate by with little return for the profits they make.
Apologies in advance if any of you are holding a bag of worthless train company stocks, because they are all accidents waiting to happen. Terrible, destructive and fatal.
Like the airline industry and it's severe problems with parts piracy, the train industry also has the exact same problem. They'll reuse and reshoe 70 year old brake pads and put them on 150 tonnes of moving metal pulling 10's of thousands of tonnes of freight. Some of it for eating, some of it for burning. Doesn't really matter what the haul is.
24,000,000 metric tonnes going an average of 60 KMph will generate 7.9669e-4 Mega tonnes of TNT force. The train cargo on these transports can be up to 2 miles long when moving stuff to a switch yard. Translated. There is a fucktonne of energy behind a train that's moving.
And there are real limits to how long something can be reused, especially something like brakes on a train. It's common sense. If it were car, none of you would ever drive it because it would never be road safe.
Detroit and Hamilton cast steel for pressure brake drums and rotors for 70 year old trains have a use limit and need new parts. Because eventually the parts shatter like clay plates and the train is blown off the tracks. The accident in Quebec btw was determined that it was poor parts quality that led to the death of all those people. The maintenance was passed, but the guidelines for replacement of parts were not.
Right now all train travel is in the same situation. Zero investment into renewal of the industry for 40 years and the parts for replacement are just as old. Most of the parts now are obtained half rusted from part yards, cleaned with CLR, packaged and then resold. That's the train industry now. It's severely broken because of the parts piracy.
If anyone has a chance to talk with a dye caster, it's been one of their concerns for decades and should be standard practice if investing into train transport. Talk to the people that have skin in the game.
Somebody call Warren Buffett please. I'm sure he would have some insight into these derailments.
He owns the rails as well. Has for a while.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BNSF_Railway
I doubt anyone would have told Buffet about the issue of parts piracy, if it were discussed it wouldn't matter anyways. Old crappy parts are all there is. There hasn't been a steel industry anywhere with the same quality as Detroit for a long time. It's barely known or admitted outside of Engineering circles.
And keep it in perspective. To someone with billions of dollars, a rail company is a model train set, it's the boy billionaire fantasy come true of a younger time. Today it's iPods, to an 80 year old it was train sets.
Unfortunately when something as large, cheap to run and important to a functioning modern world decides to miss the annual capital investment into replacement. That lack of ownership and responsibility turns into trains flipping. Lost lives, lost capital, lost time and in this case a really big mess.
Don't get me wrong, rail is a great investment. Only if the trains and tracks are in working order. Without them, there is no business, just dangerous wrecks waiting to happen. There really is no professional audit and inspection process anymore, not enough people and far too many rubber stamps.
I doubt he's sabotaging his own plans with his pipeline stuff. Only thing he's inadvertently sabotaging are his shareholders by avoiding maintenance costs too long on the much more important rail aspect.
He did however shit in his own cornflakes. As Irony would have it, Buffet's past professional career he accidentally destroyed the dye casting group that would have been required to repair an entire rail industry for most of the world. During the 80's, he and the rest of the Baron's of Wall Street set to butchering companies during the hostile take over period. People that made things to keep the infrastructure from falling to pieces were liquidated and wholesaled along with the future of all rail travel in North America.
I used to work for CSX railroad years ago. I heard things like this too.
Now I fly with my company half the year. Gee, thanks.....I feel SOOOO much better now. LOL!
Come on you Hosers .Driving a train isnt like driving a beer truck...Take off aye!
Canada sucks!
Peter Griffith
We could have a nice safe pipeline, instead; oh wait; we got Obamma.
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) 10/16/2013— North Dakota officials are trying to determine if Tesoro Corp. knew about potential problems — including one deemed "serious" in documents obtained by The Associated Press — with a pipeline that leaked more than 20,000 barrels of crude oil in a wheat field in the northwestern part of the state.
Yep....
The oil and gas industry are proud of a 1 per mille loss rate for pipelines. Do the math....
I was actually wondering if the derailments are occurring to drum up support for pipelines. I would not put it past the scumbags at all.
On the other hand, pipelines are not exactly fault proof either, so I'm not exactly rooting for a pipeline, given the recent disasters that occurred in 2013 alone.
Look, I love a good story as well as the next guy but,,,,
The choo-choos have too much to loose for them to be in part of anything...
Why can't the fuckwads here at ZH figure out that oil is replacing coal on the rails...
Edit: Like seriously, my own 16 year old son pointed out to me that CSX controls the East coast, UNP controls the West coast and CNI controls the North-South...
Difference is that coal doesn't combust and sets towns ablaze when the trains derail. Have you looked at the rail maps going through Westcoast towns in order to get to the water?
That makes sense. In one of Martenson's recent interviews, it was bragged that 130 coal fired plants have been shut down in the past couple of years and replaced with green energy, which I knew was bullshit...
And we got prophet from Omaha who invested heavily into railways, perhaps just a coincidence.
What fraction of BNSF revenues are from transporting oil?
In other words, let's keep this to a facts based discussion...
Fair enough
I'd call it a fuck-ton, but that's not a fraction, but given the way you worded your post (using oil instead of hydrocarbons) we could drop a big ole 0 (zero) in there and avoid the need for math or facts in the first place.
I refuse to visit the unholy Berkshire website on a Sunday and dig through its financials. But the BNSF press office BS is acceptable- see below. There is some ambiguity since intermodal containers can be loaded more than one to a train car, and BNSF provides "shipments" for coal instead of a measure of carloads, but the share of oil and oil substitute is significant.
http://bnsf.com/about-bnsf/pdf/fact_sheet.pdf
• In 2012, BNSF hauled more than 1.7 million carloads of industrial products.
• BNSF transports enough crude oil from the Williston Basin of North Dakota and Montana to fill the tanks of 656,000 average sized vehicle with gasoline every day.
• The asphalt hauled by BNSF in a year is enough to lay a single lane road four times around the equator.
I'm sure it was Syria.
No. It is a Canadian folk legend that the ghost of Usama Bin Laden haunts the tracks.
It is said that his enchanting music and voice causes unwary train conductors and their trains to derail.
long ago in scotland shires or glens they had the scottish rite for masons.
later they had the icecream wars.
this is an icecream war some ice no cream.
no bisciut or waffer just turf wars.
the train clan getting hit on by the pipeline clan.
just like braveheart without mel and no fake hollywood fuckin speech about freeeeedom.
Nice analogy, re. ice cream wars.
Skip to 2:50 of the following clip ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHMFooKZsFs
Warren Buffet could be Mr. Bunny.
And just a reminder as to the fabulous net energy from the Bakken. Here's a table:
https://www.dmr.nd.gov/oilgas/stats/historicalbakkenoilstats.pdf
Yes, boys and girls, I am being sarcastic.
Well, the US consumes about 20 million barrels per DAY. So, if the Bakken produces 20 million barrels in a MONTH, that's not very much is it?
Roughly 1/30 ... are you sneezing at the money that represents?
No, just raising a serious doubt about how much of a "Saviour of America" the Bakken really is. But I would like to see the figures for the total Bakken area (in addition to ND, plus other regions like Texas). That would give a better idea.
Investors in the pipeline must be really pissed
The above ground wheeled multi car pipelines called trains have proven to be great at making warren buffet money.
Pipelines are so boring compared to exploding trains, though!
At least when a train derails the amount of oil is limited to the capacity of the tanker cars, pipe will spew hundreds of thousands of barrels before the leak is even detected. Given the logic of your other posts here on ZH I realized you specialize in shortsightedness.
Wrong. Safety grade Pressure drop instrments detect problems in pipelines well before serious failures result in significant spills. Therefore, the probability of a train car failure/accident is much greater than a pipeline incident.
Significant spills, nice one. Ceding public lands to the pipeline co's is a giant step in the wrong direction
We have locked horns before, but in this case you clearly know what you are talking about....
So tell me, is this farmer here:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/farmer-field-largest-oil-spill-u-s-soil-article-1.1487225
what you mean when you say a "Safety-grade pressure drop instrument" which "detects problems?"
Just askin'.
The article is flawed and as normal in today's press seeks to overstate and grandstand the issues instead of presenting facts.
This is nowhere near the largest spill on US soil: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lakeview_Gusher
There are pressure indicators that are standard on all new pipelines, that will be used to detect pressure drop in the pipeline. There are safety valves that are periodically located along the pipeline. The amount of oil that can leak after notified is limited to the area between the two valves. Which can be a sizable amount, but is finite and only will drain out if the pipeline slopes toward the rupture. The one big difference between an train and a pipeline, is that normally the oil doesn't explode...
This is a few acres, the land will be reclaimed and will be in production again in a few seasons. There are whole reclaimation departments at the large oil companies whose job it is to return old well sites back to prior condition. Drilling standards aren't the same as they are now and a low of these wells / pipelines are more than 30 years old. Pre-Valdez.
Define "signficant" please. I think 20,000 barrels of oil from a leak the size of a quarter is "significant" and TESCO didn't even know anything about it. It took a farmer harvesting wheat (yum) to "detect" the problem for the company.
And if I remember correctly, the arkansas spill was discovered by homeowners
Have you ever wondered who it is that hires these people on Road Crews and Maintenance Crew?
"You need a job? Yeah I'll pay you $35 per Hour. It is a Temporary position. We are doing some maintenance work today. I need you to remove this section of Train Track. Excuse me but I have to make a Phone Call." On the phone..."I need to place an order for 100,000 Contracts on Crude Oil. Can you get me a 3:1 Leverage Option Please. Yeah. Bill it to my account."
At times you have to spend a little to make a lot.
Atlas Shrugged. Gov knows better
The above is supposed to pass as a relevant comment?
All those hydrocarbons being released is bullish on AGW, eh?!?
DaddyO
You are going to have to do better than that...
No way DaddyO. Ain't goin' to school. Starts much too early for me.
Reality gives you the finger. Ayn Rand doesn't know dick.
(this is the safety record of these Bozos before they get targeted by ELF and GreenPeace hoody-wearing miscreants)
"....before they get targeted by ELF and GreenPeace hoody-wearing miscreants."
You may have stumbled on a lead.
This was done by the Syrian government. Questions are a burden to others and a prison for oneself.
but when atlas bets all and loses, atlas goes to gov. to get reimbursed as atlas pays gov's salary.
Watch the burning of Forced Growth Inc. Are we on fire sale?
Damn and CNI was moving so nicely...
For anyone that is actually interested in real research and not made up bullshit about Keystone I tweeted this a while back
Flakmeister @Flakmeister6 OctRecommended: Go Your Own Way – The Slow Crude Train From Canada | RBN Energy Network http://rbnenergy.com/go-your-own-way-the-slow-crude-train-from-canada … #keystonexl
This is what happens when you place coins on the track.
CIA False Flag....Obama wants the Keystone Pipeline as a "safe" alternative.
More likely, to keep excess oil off market. The banks have been rigging prices for several years. Those darn Canadians just won't go along.
We really need to make the tracks wider, the cars and engines smaller, and slow the fuck down for pete sake, just not now, to many contracts to uphold.
Fuck trains. Pipelines ftw.
Why? The benefits only accrue to the owners and GC refiners.... It screws Joe Six Pack big time...
As an added bonus with pipeline construction we also get the complete devestation of untouched wilderness to transport a product of fleeting supply, brilliant.
Lotsa Bakken talk in this thread, but that's all extrapolation. This oil being shipped came from the oil sands north of Edmonton. No Bakken involvement.
FYI Bill Gates is the largest shareholder of Canadian National railroad. Which is rather a lot relevant to him and Buffett making the trip to the oil sands and Buffett's recent position in Suncor.
Another somewhat important thought evolution relevant to this . . . no one who does not understand oil scarcity and what is coming would be visiting oil sands and buying Suncor. Those guys KNOW.
Obama: "Dam you to hell project mayhem"!
I don't get it. I thought ZH supported oil, come hell, high water, fire, or pollution. Why are you running a story like this?
Because government HAS TO DO SOMETHING!
We need to pass a law!
To make us all safe!
And FOR THE CHILDREN! My God, THINK OF THE CHILDREN!
Well, there will be new and more (MOAR) regulations. That's something.
If only we could just get those obstructionist Tea Party extremist anarchists to pass a law making all railroad accidents illegal, nothing like this unfortunate disaster need ever happen again.
We could call it the Criminalization of Radically Apocalyptic Petroleum (CRAP) Act.
Yes, we desperately need to pass CRAP, and we need to do it NOW!
.
Yeah. Instead of Legislation we can actually call that act for what it is. Passing CRAP is Defecation. We need to pass CRAP NOW as our system is constipated.
Understand that am in full support of passing CRAP NOW...as soon as I find the appropriate location and receptacle.
I agree. YOU DO NOT GET IT.
It could have bad Al-Queda on board and been taken out by a drone before they had a chance to detonate it.
"The Spice must flow!"
Build the pipeline already.
The pipeline would HELP America, so Bath House will always be against it.
He probably pocketed a mil from Warren, banked offshore.
Warrens ass must be getting chapped about now....hahahahaha.
Why?
Celebratory twerking? I don'know.
I agree...
You don't know...
So you know what it is like when someone takes it up the ass? Is that what makes you an authority?
I will agree that I do not know.
And I never want to find out.
...the evacuation of the nearly hamlet of Gainford about 80km west of Edmonton...
I hope they took their guns with them.
Global economy derailed and exploded years ago...when is a state emergency going to be declared?
At least this explosion and resulting damage will provide a boost to Canadian GDP.
Or does that effect only work in Krugman's home country?
It's a good sized boost, but the health of the environment and people surrounding it don't get the same benifit. You know, privatize the profits and sociallize the losses, works every time.
I wonder how many times the train crossed the border to rack up fees?
If the accident happened because of too much real traffic, then it's a tragedy. If the accident happened because too many trains were crossing back and forth racking up cash for Uncle Warren, then he's responsible and should pay the damages.
Canada should never produce oil and fucking human being should stop using oil and live like the Amish!
Why worry. The central planning masterminds who approved the earlier design of those rail cars and wrote the rail transportation guidelines will fix everything. Only the best, brightest and affirmatively selected become central planning masterminds. They think;so you needn't.
They should have anticipated the seasonal drone migration.
The Koch brothers would transport crude oil in obsolete open top coal hoppers if regulations allowed it...
Any anyone catching the slop is "lucky."
Do not laugh, but it was not so long ago that the poor would walk the tracks to scavange dropped bits of coal...
Aint it a bitch it is not on YouTube....
OFA Shill Alert!
Evidence please?
Who do thinks funds the shills calling for the dismemberment of the EPA...
Are you that thick?
Why would they want to defund a bunch of worthless bureacrats, when they can simply pay off said worthless bureaucrats?
What happened to the moose?....
OMG!!! OMG!!! this is worse than fukishumatsu sushi.
:)
p.s. i am sooo glad those meaniless 100000 view posts are not around. at least for now.
Can I get a link to that 100k view post?
Would you rather that I act out instead of vent out my internal rage on the Comment Section?
I can not care less about approvals or views. IT JUST GIVES ME A VENUE TO TELL THE ENTIRE WORLD TO FUCK OFF AND DIE.
Of course I can always act on that...
Now back to being Politically Correct...and real nice...
tesla and his mysteries.
the miltary have given us his haarp and his wave beam weapon how about some resonance free energy?
Tesla's zero emissions vehicle. Now where do I find some zero emissions electricity to put in it?
Wind/Solar..
Coming to a outlet near you soon....
Jesus! Just give them the fucking pipeline!
You clearly have not thought this through completely...
For those that enjoy "accidents" and various in-no-way-is-there-a-pattern-here type pure coincidence move along things....
http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/a-look-at-train-accidents-in-canada-over-th...
Used to be a nice clean place to live up there....no more. And the cost of living.,....out of sight!
time for a real 21st century pipeline - tons of redundant safety shit built in. install captures every 20 feet or whatever where panels auto-slide down to contain oil in sections for problems along w/ totally redundant parallel system for excess capacity/emergency backup. save the trains for tourists and as transportation for holders of berkshire hathaway shares...
Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it's enemy action.
Twice is enough for me. It's my understanding the Canadian rail system is in much better shape than the US (think Trans-Canadian Railroad.)
Could this be sabotage to the tracks by the eco-nazis who absolutely HATE fossil fuels of any kind?
These wrecks are big, horrific and get lots and lots of news coverage. It creates a lot of FEAR in the sheeple.
It sure wouldn't be the first time eco-nazis have caused considerable damage to further their f-ed up ideas.
Anyone know where Bath House and Reggie were at that time?
At least it wasn't a pipeline leak. With train derailments we get to see a lot of the oil burn off into the atmosphere leaving less to clean up later. But seriously, we need to see an end of railroad magnates like Warren Buffet quietly lobbying against the Keystone Pipeline in effect to line his own pockets through his Burlington Northern railroad purchase which occurred shortly after Obama took office.
And pray tell, what would be the angle of those "quietly lobbying" for Keystone?
Would it be the GC refiners all set up to export refined products from Tax free Export Zones? Read the Valero 10-Q and get back to us...
It's cleanup later alright, just not by you, dumbfuck. And who should end their magnate-hood? The state you say?! Interesting band-aid you seem to need to apply to your amazing tool-to-rule-them-all "capitalism".
Why is it that conservatives seem satisfied with arguing both for and against unrestrained capitalism? Seriously, pick a fucking side already!
Paging; Dagny Taggart & Hank Reardon
The Galt Line
CEO of Rail World — Montreal, Maine and Atlantic parent — sits on board of company suing railway in bankruptcy
http://bangordailynews.com/2013/10/13/business/ceo-of-rail-world-montrea...
Clearly we should be putting pipelines under the trains.
That will be much safer.
Hey, what's this /sarc thing for again?