Last week's derailment, one of three in the Dunsmuir area over the last year, raised hackles when word got out (I'm conjecturing, through one of the local "first responders") one of the train's cars contained 18,000 gallons of hydrochloric acid. The local community was outraged as were fishermen. "We dodged a bullet," Curtis Knight, Northeastern Representative of Cal-Trout who lives in nearby Mt. Shasta told me. "If that car had ended up in the river, we would be right back to '91," he said.

With the local community seething, the Upper Sacramento River Exchange Organized a public information forum inviting all government agencies involved with railroad operations in the canyon, Union Pacific, and the local community to attend.

The River Exchange is a non-profit group funded in large part by the legal settlement from the Cantera Loop spill. Although they started as a watershed stewardship group their focus has shifted to community building and public awareness. "A lot of environmental watershed groups put the river first. We're putting the community first, so that the river will truly benefit in the long run." Executive Director Diane Strachan quoted in a local newspaper.

About a hundred people living in the canyon attended the August 7 event. Union Pacific fielded an impressive team including track, operations, chemical transportation and practices, managers; their public relations director, legal counsel and a representative from corporate headquarters in Omaha, Nebraska. The California Public Utilities Commission (PUC) and the Federal Railroad Agency (FRA) were also represented. Noticeably absent were representatives from either Shasta or Siskiyou County with the exception of local Supervisor LaVada Erickson.

Community Spokesman Bill Berry was the first to speak. The highpoints of his presentation were:

• The two September 2002 derailments were not minor as claimed by Union Pacific.
• Both the local community and Union Pacific were showing an increased level of concern about the safety of railroad operations in the Canyon.
• Although Union Pacific has made a large investment in infrastructure in the canyon, derailments are still a regular occurrence.
• The railroads have sole control of their operating procedures.
• In addition to the potentially fatal danger toxic spills pose to the residents of the canyon, the State's drinking water supply is threatened.

He was followed by Union Pacific's group, which did a very good job of explaining safety and operating procedures and what details were known at present about the July 31 derailment. A summary of their presentation follows.

THE DERAILMENT
• The makeup of the train, which derailed on July 31, was three locomotive pulling 86 cars. Only three of the cars were loaded including the hydrochloric acid tanker, 42 cars from the rear. The train was moving at 20 MPH when an emergency brake sequence initiated at rear of the train. The train was going around a turn and the forces of braking at the rear and pulling at the front caused what is known in the business as a "string effect" derailment, where cars pop off the track as the string tightens.
• The local first responders were on the scene within 30 minutes and had traffic control set up on Interstate 5.
• Union Pacific's emergency notification center in St. Louis Missouri notified the Environmental Protection Agency, CDF, US Forestry and all other agencies require to be notified by the Federal Railroad Agency (FRA). The Dunsmuir yard manager notified the City of Dunsmuir, Siskiyou County Sheriffs Department and the Department of Fish and Game, but forgot to call 911. This resulted in a delay for health department officials and water quality crews to arrive at the scene.
• The cause of the derailment is under investigation by Union Pacific and the FRA.

RAILROAD PROCEDURES AND PRACTICES
• As a public carrier, Union Pacific has to accept all loads that comply with FRA regulations.
• The FRA has established regulations for train make-up, known as "track train dynamics", which are based on car weight. There are no regulations for car contents. Conceivably, there could be cars carrying pesticide adjacent to one carrying explosives followed by five tankers of cyanide.
• Union Pacific does not own the rolling stock. The car owners are responsible for their maintenance. There are scheduled inspections of rolling stock and spot inspections by both FRA and Union Pacific.
• 7,600 trains per year ply the tracks of the Upper Sacramento River Canyon and traffic is increasing. As the main north south freight corridor for the West Coast, this section of track will not be closed down.
• Complete load records, and instructions for dealing with toxic spills from contents of those loads, are carried on each train.
• Supplies for dealing with spills are propositioned throughout the canyon. The nearest salvage crane is located in Klamath Falls over six hours away.
• Union Pacific conducts training seminars for first responders twice a year. Groups that have attended these seminars include the Dunsmuir Fire Department, California Division of Forestry, US Forest Service, and the Environmental Protection Agency Fast Water Oil Spill Response Team.
• Union Pacific has spent $53 million for track improvements in the canyon over the last six years.
• The Union Pacific Lawyer offered statistics suggesting derailments were substantially down since 1991 for an area which was monitored during litigation after the 1991 spill. Union Pacific was unable to produce derailment statistics for the entire canyon or statistics for other areas such as Roseville to Redding.
• Before a train leaves the Roseville yard, it is inspected by a clerk who gives the load paperwork to the conductor who along with the engineer inspects the train again. There are no rolling inspections once the train leaves the yard.
• Train speed is determined by turn radius and type of rail laid out in guidelines from FRA.
• Pusher engines at the rear of the train would make string effect derailments less likely, however, until the bugs are worked out of remote control systems, they will not be used in the canyon. Union Pacific has no plans to add human controlled pusher engines to trains in the canyon.

The FRA and PUC representatives then told the assembly the canyon is a dangerous stretch of track that receives much higher attention and inspection than other areas.

The floor was then opened for public questions and comments. Many interesting suggestions were made and tough questions were asked. Among them were the following:

• Since 1991 when there was a toxic cloud over Dunsmuir, in addition to the spill in the river, residents are traumatized every time there is a derailment weather or not a spill is involved.
• A system of sirens to notify canyon residents of derailments and spills should be built. It took over two hours, after the July 31 derailment, before any public official started notifying residents of Castella, four miles south of Dunsmuir, of the derailment.
• Under questioning, Union Pacific admitted they did not have contingency plans for any type of spill in the canyon or contingency plans for mobilization of special teams or equipment, which might be needed to deal with particular hazardous materials. Federal specialists would be dispatched at a point in time local resources could not handle the situation.
• Smaller hazardous loads only trains could be run through the canyon at lower speeds, inspected before entering the canyon, and would be subject to increased maintenance and government oversight.
• Hazardous loads should be routed through less environmentally sensitive routes.
• Union Pacific could vastly improve their river cleanup efforts, do a much better job of cleaning up after working in an area, and reduce litter by its employees.

CONCLUSIONS

The increasing amount of train traffic in the Upper Sacramento River Canyon, on a particularly dangerous section of track, means it's not if we have another toxic spill, it's when we have another toxic spill.

Response times from the latest derailment demonstrate river contamination would be five miles downstream before anyone could do anything about a spill! If a spill occurred requiring a salvage crane to pull cars out of the river, the contamination could reach Shasta Lake (a major source of drinking water in California) before the equipment ever reached the site.

Union Pacific might be able to help install an early warning system throughout the canyon, but clearly train make-up by content, hazardous load rerouting, pusher engines, rolling inspections, and contingency plans are the purvey of the FRA. Until specific changes are made to the FRA regulations, business will continue as usual.

The response by first responders and local governments to derailments over the last year has proven that public notification systems are in drastic need of improvement. The potential for tragic loss of life is very real and needs to be addressed.

A salvage crane and crew needs to be based at Union Pacific's Dunsmuir yard.

Community awareness of what a train with a problem looks like and procedures for reporting problems are also areas where improvements are needed.

The only group that will be able to force changes in FRA regulations is the Congress. Their awareness about railroad safety issues, particularly in environmentally sensitive areas needs to be raised. This is going to require writing your representatives in the House and Senate.

And finally, Union Pacific should not send a guy named Don Snow to public relations events.