Could Houston be next East Palestine?
A couple of weeks ago, Houston reader Flora Gill sent us a letter that I haven’t been able to stop thinking about. She, like so many of us, had seen the horrific images from East Palestine, Ohio, earlier this month: the churning column of black smoke, a towering pillar of fire and cloud, rising from the burning wreckage of a derailed Norfolk Southern Railroad train.
It seems a faulty wheel bearing is to blame for the dozens of derailed cars, 11 of which were carrying hazardous materials that leaked into the water, air and soil, prompting hundreds of residents to evacuate. The giant scary plume was from a “controlled detonation” to avert a worse explosion of five tanker cars carrying vinyl chloride, a colorless carcinogenic gas.
It’s a disaster that, if not quite of biblical proportions, has drawn comparisons to Chernobyl and to the oddly prescient movie “White Noise.” Calling this the “American Chernobyl” is certainly a stretch, but it says a lot about our fear.
Here in Houston we’re no strangers to environmental disasters, much less the chaos that comes with the clean-up. It’s the “trauma tax” we pay for the relatively low cost of living here. It isn’t too hard to imagine why Flora Gill would write to us with worry.
“Considering I live two houses away from the Galveston rail track, which is also surrounded by several gas and chemical pipelines, and the trains probably carry all sorts of hazardous stuff, this news concerns me. Do you know, or can you find out, if we are in the same danger?” she asked.
The short answer: Yes. we are most definitely in the same — or worse — danger (I write, nervously, as I hear the familiar sound of rumbling railcars next to my apartment). All kinds of freight trains pass through here, many carrying the same chemicals as the train in Ohio. And crashes can and do happen: Just last week, an 18-wheeler crashed into and derailed a Union Pacific train carrying noxious materials in northeast Houston, near Splendora. But such accidents are still relatively rare, and rarer still is the size and scope of the Ohio disaster.
What exactly determines the size and scope? According to transit expert Christof Spieler, a structural engineer and director of planning at Huitt-Zollars, there are several factors.
Speed, for one. The next time you’re late for work because of another dang train, give thanks for every lumbering railcar; the low speed means a lower chance of a severe accident.
The quality of infrastructure matters as well. Older tracks pose more risk, but our tracks, Spieler said, are in relatively good shape.
What about the trains’ own safety systems? People furious at Norfolk Southern, the company responsible for the Ohio accident, have pointed out the company’s lobbying against train safety measures, such as an electronic braking system requirement from the Obama era that was repealed under the Trump administration. Fierce industry pressure has left us with federal regulations that effectively exempt many trains carrying combustible materials — such as the chemicals involved in Ohio — from the “high-hazard” classification and its stricter safety requirements.
Clearly, we need urgent federal action to strengthen those standards. But, Spieler explained, we might be creating a bigger problem by focusing on getting all trains to upgrade to the electronic braking system, as several environmental groups are urging Pete Buttigieg to do. Doing so would likely force rail companies to cut costs elsewhere — such as by skimping on regular inspections. It may also push more materials to be transported via truck, rather than train.
That, Spieler said, could be a much deadlier long-term consequence. Trucks are more accident-prone than trains, and because they typically cross more busy urban areas, they have also been responsible for more fatalities and property damage.
If you were here in 1976, perhaps you remember the truck carrying 7,000 gallons of anhydrous ammonia that plowed through the 610 West Loop guardrail and onto the Southwest Freeway — not far from the Chronicle’s offices — releasing a deadly white plume that killed seven Houstonians and injured nearly 200 more.
We learned our lesson: Hazardous materials in such large quantities are no longer allowed to be transported inside the Loop, stricter speed limits were implemented for chemical haulers, and the Houston Fire Department has a dedicated hazmat team that’s a routine fixture at even the smallest chemical spills.
The Ohio disaster should prompt similar speedy reforms, but we’re missing the big picture if we focus only on trains. We should look critically at the safety of our overall system for transporting chemicals and other hazardous materials.
As Spieler put it, Houston “bears the burden for the rest of the country” by making and housing petrochemicals, the dangerous stuff other states depend on but don’t want in their backyard. We’re even disposing of the toxic firefighting water used in Ohio. The least the federal government could do is compensate the city fairly for that role. For example, it could fund automated heat detectors on Houston’s tracks — the kind that catch disasters like Ohio’s before they happen.
A multi-billion dollar effort by federal, state and local government, along with substantial corporate investment, could elevate railroad lines and reduce atgrade crossings, where 94 percent of rail-related fatalities and injuries occur.
I know none of this is particularly reassuring. However, if you, like me, find yourself with still more questions, I encourage you to take them to U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia’s railroad town hall, featuring the Federal Railroad Administration. It’s 6 p.m. Thursday at McReynolds Middle School.
And I hope this will be only the beginning of our conversation. I’d love to hear from you on this topic — yes, you, clever engineers, environmental experts, train aficionados, and concerned citizens. Feel free to send us a letter at viewpoints@chron.com.
Regina Lankenau is assistant op-ed editor at the Houston Chronicle. This piece originally appeared in Thursday’s SaysHou newsletter, a subscriber exclusive dedicated to your letters to the editor. To join the conversation, sign up at: houstonchronicle.com/ newsletters/opinion