Casey, Fetterman cheer proposed rule to enhance rail hazmat reporting

Pennsylvania's U.S. senators are applauding efforts by federal regulators to toughen rail accountability in the wake of the East Palestine train derailment.

U.S. Sens. Bob Casey, D-Scranton, John Fetterman, D-Braddock, and Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, sent a joint letter Thursday to U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration Deputy Administrator Tristan Brown in “strong support” of a proposed PHMSA rule that would require rail carriers to maintain and provide real-time information about shipments containing hazardous materials to emergency responders.

“The disastrous Norfolk Southern derailment along the Ohio-Pennsylvania border demonstrated just how essential this policy change is to put firefighters and other first responders in the best position to keep their communities and themselves safe in times of crisis,” the senators wrote.

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Under the proposed rule, rail operators would be mandated to proactively “push” information about rail hazmat shipments to authorized emergency responders within in a 10-mile radius of any train accident involving a release or suspected release of hazardous materials. This information would include the quantity and position of the shipment, its origin and destination and a designated emergency point of contact at the railroad.

The proposal extends mandates in the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation, or FAST, Act – which requires Class I railroads to generate real-time hazmat records – to all railroad classes and adds proactive notification requirements.

“On-demand access to key information about hazmat shipments coupled with proactive information sharing will enable first responders to better prepare for the risks present at the scene of an incident before they arrive on scene,” said Brown, PHMSA's deputy administrator, in a news release introducing the proposed rule.

Several Norfolk Southern train cars containing highly toxic, combustible chemicals including vinyl chloride derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, Feb. 3 near Darlington Township as the train traveled from Illinois to Beaver County’s Conway Yard. The chemicals leaked and burned for days as emergency responders monitored the disaster, which later prompted a “controlled vent and burn” of vinyl chloride and local evacuations.

Senators said information revealed in June during the National Transportation Safety Board’s investigative hearing on the derailment demonstrates that “insufficient information-sharing policies put emergency responders in harm’s way” during the incident.

Jennifer Homendy, NTSB chair, said during the hearings Norfolk Southern notified its environmental consulting contractor CTEH of the train’s contents within 12 minutes of the derailment, but Columbiana County’s Emergency Management Agency waited nearly an hour for the information despite multiple efforts to reach Norfolk Southern’s dispatch in Atlanta. Many local emergency responders did not receive the information for several more hours.

Firefighters at the scene did not have access to AskRail, a phone app that tracks the cargo of large trains. First responders must be verified by an employer to use the app, and few knew it existed.

“This delay (in reporting) is unacceptable,” the senators wrote. “The brave first responders who put their lives on the line to protect their communities during train derailments should not have to deal with both hazardous conditions and an intentional lack of critical information."

Scott Deutsch, the railroad’s regional hazardous materials manager, said at the hearing Norfolk Southern's industrial hygiene division, based in Arkansas, informed the contractor within minutes to bring monitoring equipment based on the chemicals involved in the accident.

“I can’t explain the time frame,” he said.

At an April news conference in Darlington Township, Beaver Falls Deputy Fire Chief David Seidl said his and hordes of other fire departments responded to a “vague dispatch” shortly after the train derailment. Responders made multiple efforts to identify rail cars’ contents, but “that information was not available,” Seidl said.

More: Gov. Shapiro says Norfolk Southern had 'poor handling' of derailment response in open letter

“We were advised it was most likely alcohol, which is far less hazardous. We continued to work,” he said. “It was hours later we learned the extent of the dangers the cars held.” Seidl said he and his colleagues experienced sore throats and respiratory distress shortly after. The long-term health consequences for first responders are still unknown, he said.

Public comment on the proposed rule ends Aug. 28.

This article originally appeared on Beaver County Times: Casey, Fetterman cheer proposed rule to enhance rail hazmat reporting