Rail tanker leak creates Amtrak delays

0 Comments | Oakland Tribune, Feb 20, 2008 | by Erik N Nelson

A railroad tanker car leaking corrosive material this morning stopped an Amtrak Capitol Corridor train in Oakland this morning, stranding commuters for a half-hour and forcing them onto BART, buses and a train to Chicago to continue their trips.

``There was a tanker leak in our yard'' at about 7 a.m., said Zoe Richmond, a spokeswoman for Union Pacific Railroad. The car reportedly spilled 20 gallons of the light brown, highly corrosive ferric flouride solution onto the ground at Union Pacific's rail yard between 8th Street, Interstate 880 and 5th and 13th Avenues. No injuries were reported.

While an Oakland Fire Department hazardous materials team assessed the spill, Capitol Corridor Train 524 from San Jose was stopped at Oakland Coliseum Station for about 30 minutes, said Amtrak spokeswoman Vernae Graham. Many passengers walked across the street to BART and at 7:47 a.m., the railroad terminated the train and bused remaining passengers to Emeryville. There, the stranded passengers were allowed to board the California Zephyr train to Chicago, which follows the same route as train 524 to Sacramento.

Calls to the Oakland Fire Department have so far not responded to requests for information on the type and extent of the chemical spill. Richmond said it was not near any waterways, but the rail yard does border the channel that connect Lake Merritt with the Oakland Estuary.

The area was cleared for railroad traffic at about 9:30, Richmond said, and Union Pacific employees continue to investigate the cause of spill.

Fred Millar, a Virginia-based activist for tighter safety and security for rail tankers, said ferric flouride can cause severe injury, burns or death, especially if it's heated in a fire, and will react with water to produce corrosive and toxic gases.

Millar said that while minor in amount and effect, such spills should be a wake-up call to Oakland residents about the dangers of tankers carrying thousands of gallons of hazardous cargo through their communities.

``There's a pattern around the country of extreme carelessness with hazardous cargoes, including those that the federal government calls weapons of mass destruction,'' such as chlorine. ``Last year, a runaway cholorine tank car was allowed to roll 20 miles through Las Vegas ... before it finally came to a stop on its own."