Letter from County Executive McCoy to US DOT Secretary Foxx on NPRM relating to enhanced tank car standards and operational controls for high hazard flammable trains.
Letter from County Executive McCoy to US DOT Secretary Foxx on NPRM relating to enhanced tank car standards and operational controls for high hazard flammable trains.
Letter from County Executive McCoy to US DOT Secretary Foxx on NPRM relating to enhanced tank car standards and operational controls for high hazard flammable trains.
Secretary By electronic filing to U.S. Department of Transportation Federal eRulemaking Portal 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE Washington, D.C. 20590
Re: Albany County Comments on NPRM and Request for an Emergency Order Docket No. PHMSA 2012-0082 (HM-251) RIN 2137-AE91 NRPM: Enhanced Tank Car Standards and Operational Controls for High-Hazard Flammable Trains
Dear Secretary Foxx:
I commend the Department for recognizing that the recent, monumental increase in North American rail transport of crude oil using deficient tank cars and operational controls corresponds to a drastic increase in terrible accidents and greatly increased risks to life, property and the environment, and for initiating the series of additional actions taken and proposed by the Department, the Federal Railroad Administration, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration to reduce those accidents and their severity.
I believe the proposal for Enhanced Tank Car Standards and Operational Controls (the NPRM) on which we are commenting today are an important step in strengthening the applicable standards, but are insufficient to protect the population, property and natural resources of Albany County.
As County Executive, I have responsibility for assuring that there are sufficient protections and preparations to handle the risks and consequences of the crude oil expansion in the County. We have already taken some actions, including:
DANIEL P. MCCOY COUNTY EXECUTIVE COUNTY OF ALBANY OFFICE OF THE EXECUTIVE 112 STATE STREET, ROOM 900 ALBANY, NEW YORK 12207-2021 (518) 447-7040 - FAX (518) 447-5589 WWW.ALBANYCOUNTY.COM PHILIP F. CALDERONE, ESQ. DEPUTY COUNTY EXECUTIVE A County Department of Health order (March, 2014) establishing a County-wide moratorium on certain operations involving crude oil;
Appointment of experts to an advisory Committee on Crude Oil Safety to help the County evaluate and participate in resolving the unprecedented issues posed by transport, handling and storage of massive amounts of crude oil in the County; and
Preparation of the Countys attached comments on the NRPM.
The Countys responsibilities to protect the Countys people, property and environment, however, are not matched by the authority or resources to regulate the safe storage, handling and transportation of crude oil and other hazardous materials in the County. In fact the Countys authority is confined by federal pre-emption, mostly in favor of the authorities you administer.
Due to your own experience as an urban Mayor, I expect you already understand the problem of having local responsibilities without adequate authority or resources.
By this letter, I request your personal attention and response to Albany Countys situation. Specifically, I request that you recognize that the vast expansion of crude oil transport and handling in Albany County - proximate to an urban core and housing and still subject to inadequate standards - presents an imminent hazard that is particular and unique to the County and that compels exercise of your emergency authorities.
We appreciate that the enhanced tank car standards and other improvements under consideration may, in time, somewhat reduce the risks of accidents and adverse consequences in Albany County. Yet finalizing, litigating, and fully implementing those improvements will take at least several years, perhaps longer than the boom in crude oil by rail will last. Meanwhile the risks faced by the County are real now, and extreme and increasing.
So we ask you to direct the Department and its pertinent agency heads to promptly develop and issue an emergency order or orders to the railroads and shippers designed to assure that adequate equipment, operational controls and response capacities are put into place in Albany County immediately.
The attached comments provide detailed support and suggestions for the use of the Departments emergency authorities.
Also, the risk of Bakken crude-by-rail would be much lower were the oil stabilized or conditioned so as to reduce its flammability prior to interstate shipment by rail, as is regularly done prior to shipment by pipeline. We also ask the Department promptly to evaluate and then implement new requirements to assure that crude oil is transported by rail in less hazardous forms.
Given that the City of Albany is the epicenter of the explosive growth of transporting crude oil by rail; major petroleum storage, rail and port facilities, including the Northeasts largest freight yard, are located immediately adjacent to downtown Albany and public housing. And given that all of these facilities, including the shipping operations at the Port of Albany, are slated for so much growth that Albany is under consideration to become a crude oil pricing hub 1 I have asked the Mayor of Albany, the Honorable Kathy M. Sheehan to cosign this letter of concern with me.
We look forward to hearing from you.
Very truly yours,
Daniel P. McCoy Kathy M. Sheehan Albany County Executive Mayor, City of Albany
Cc: Secretary Foxx by mail Gov. Cuomo Sen. Gillibrand Sen. Schumer Rep. Tonko Commissioner Joseph Martens
Attachment:
Comments of Albany County NY in response to NPRM entitled: Hazardous Materials: Enhanced Tank Car Standards and Operational Controls for High-Hazard Flammable Trains and Request of Albany County for Exercise of US DOT Emergency Authorities Regarding Imminent Hazards of Crude Oil Transport in Albany County, September 30, 2014
1 Albany Nears Oil-Hub Status as 100-Car Trains Jam Port, www.bloomberg.com/news , July 24, 2014; Albany on oils hub list, www.timesunion.com , April 8, 2014.