WASHINGTON — When a train derailed alongside the Mississippi River in southeastern Minnesota on Jan. 26, U.S. Rep. Tim Walz said it took 12 hours for the Federal Railroad Administration to announce the exact contents of six tanker cars that fell into the water.
It was not toxic chemicals, although a bit of flammable chemical leaked from another derailed car on the shoreline.
But for Walz, the accident proved why a new report criticizing the federal government's lack of planning and enforcement of rules regarding rail transport of hazardous materials needs immediate attention.
The audit report by the Department of Transportation inspector general resonates strongly in Minnesota where trains carrying crude oil, ethanol and other toxic substances crisscross the state each week. Many of those trains pass through heavily populated areas, where derailments threaten injury to hundreds of thousands of people as well as environmental devastation.
"It just does not feel to me like the sense of urgency is there," Walz said of the report, which strongly criticizes the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA).
The concern that accompanied a deadly oil train explosion in Canada in 2013 and subsequent oil-train derailments in North Dakota, West Virginia and Illinois has "ratcheted down," Walz said.
Meanwhile, rail traffic in crude oil, which was just 9,500 carloads in 2008, reached 493,146 in 2014. Even as the shipments of the potentially explosive material skyrocketed, the inspector general said the FRA failed to refer any hazardous materials rule-breakers for criminal prosecution during the period the watchdog audited. Nor did the FRA levy significant fines on hazmat violators.
A spokesman at the FRA said its existing safety and enforcement efforts have already led to a decrease in accidents and a new record in 2015 for fines collected.