On the 8th of July, Chesapeake Climate Action Network (CCAN) protested in front of Baltimore City Hall to support local residents and activists demanding a ban on the growing number of "bomb trains" entering the city. In the past two years there have been a growing number of trains carrying Bakken crude oil to or through Baltimore. These trains are called "bomb trains" due to the severe damage caused by them in recent railroad accidents, including the incineration of half of one small town.
One speaker at the rally survived a railroad tank car derailment in her town that released a cloud of vinyl chloride and sickened her and her daughter. Claims that railroads can ensure zero accidents ring hollow in the face of such testimony.
Bakken Crude (fracked) oil is carried in DOT-111 railroad tank cars with a capacity that can be as much as 20,000 gallons. Heavy crude oil can be nearly as heavy on a volume basis as water (8 pounds/gallon) as opposed to light crude that may be only 0.85 times the weight of water, for about 6.5 pounds per gallon. For heavy crude that is a tanker cargo weight of 160,000 pounds. By comparison a B-52 bomber has a maximum bomb load of 70,000 pounds. Thus, a single exploding tank of Bakken crude is roughly comparable in energy output to an air strike on a single spot by a pair of B-52 bombers loaded with napalm. Bomb trains indeed! In one recent derailment six of these tank cars burned. The recommended evacuation radius for an oil train accident is one mile, in Baltimore that includes City Hall and over 100,000 people in range of tracks and switches where this is likely.
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