110833841
To the Editor:
Last month, a freight train with North Dakota Bakken Shale oil and gas among its cargo derailed over the Schuylkill River. Last June in Canada, 47 people died from a runaway train carrying the same contents. In November, there was a derailment in Casselton, N.D., where everyone within five miles had to be evacuated for days because of the burning, and toxins being released. It is extremely alarming there has been no follow-up by city officials on a public plan if we are not so lucky next time.
The trains crawl through congested Philadelphia, passing schools, the University of Pennsylvania hospital complex, and meters from homes, yet we have not heard one word of an evacuation plan. Most people have not even known until fairly recently about these trains headed for the Philadelphia Energy Solutions refinery in Southwest Philadelphia. The Bakken Shale oil and gas on board is easily flammable, is laden with volatile organic chemicals like Benzene a known carcinogen and has the potential to contain large amounts of hydrogen sulfide, a gas that at certain amounts turns deadly after a few inhalations.
The odds seem pretty high with the frequency these trains are traveling, twice a day, seven days a week, a derailment could happen again, and soon. The immediate danger is eminent, not to mention the overall climate damage caused by the process of hydro-fracturing in North Dakota. Families are sickened and displaced, and methane is being burned off as waste directly into the atmosphere.
Philadelphia residents deserve answers and to be kept in the loop of anything moving through our city that poses a threat. Why is this being allowed? Who is supposed to be informing those in the danger zone?
Joanne Douglas
South Philadelphia
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