Agencies train in Greenville for rail oil spill response

Mike Lange/Piscataquis Observer REELING IT OUT — DEP workers unroll a containment boom at the Junction Wharf in Greenville during a June 17 training exercise with Central Maine and Quebec Railway, the Maine Emergency Management Agency and Maine Forest Service.

By Mike Lange
Staff Writer

GREENVILLE, Maine — The scenario was frightening.

A freight train with several tankers filled with Bakken crude oil derailed and overturned in Greenville Junction, and the engine also was leaking diesel fuel.

The hazardous liquid was seeping into a ditch within a few hundred yards of Moosehead Lake.

Fortunately, it was only a training exercise.

But the 50 to 60 personnel with the Department of Environmental Protection, the Maine Emergency Management Agency, Central Maine and Quebec Railway and others worked feverishly Wednesday to assess the damage and try to contain the simulated spill.

While there was only one tank car at the site, the responders trained to contain leakage from several cars on both sides of the track.

Tom Tardif, Central Maine and Quebec Railway director of environmental compliance, said the DEP approached him last year, asking to use an “active railroad yard, where they could perform a real-live exercise on a derailment with a hazardous chemical. We have made a commitment not only to work with Maine DEP but local agencies as well.”

Tardif said that, during previous similar exercises, “they were seeing things they weren’t used to. It’s quite different from an accident on the side of the road.”

Duplicate training sessions are scheduled during the next 10 days for firefighters and first responders from Greenville, Milo and Brownville Junction.

Railroad safety dominated the headlines for weeks in July 2013, when an unattended, 74-car freight train carrying Bakken crude oil rolled downhill and derailed in Lac-Megantic, Quebec, resulting in the deaths of more than 40 people.

Closer to home, a train carrying crude oil derailed near Mattawamkeag in March 2013, and 13 cars tipped over. Only 3 gallons of oil spilled, and no one was injured.

“You have railroad cars running 24 hours a day, all over the United States,” Tardif said. “So something can happen anytime, anywhere. You do everything you can to keep the tracks safe and the speeds down.”

Peter Blanchard, the DEP director of response services, said the joint training exercise was “invaluable.”

“The railroad knows the risk factors for specific incidents,” he said. “The trains run very close to our precious natural resources, like our lakes, rivers and wetlands.”

Blanchard said when a derailment occurs, the railroad notifies the closest fire department, first responder and law enforcement agencies.

“But if something major happens, we’d gather all our resources to the site once we got the notification,” he said.

During Wednesday’s session, the spill wasn’t able to be contained and seeped into Moosehead Lake. That required using a containment boom on the lake and a skimmer boat to draw the oil from the water’s surface into an onboard tank.

One local firefighter who participated in the joint exercise was Kevin Black, assistant chief of the Milo and Brownville fire departments. Black was one of only three Maine firefighters chosen by the railway to attend a “Crude by Rail” course in Pueblo, Colorado, last year. “It was unbelievable,” Black said. “It was some of the finest training I ever took. We even had live fires to contend with. We brought back a lot of knowledge to share with our departments.”

Black said all departments should have more training in dealing with rail derailments.

“But the funding just isn’t there at this time,” he continued, “so this is really helpful.”

Jeff Currier, the regional forest ranger for the Maine Forest Service Old Town Office, said the training was very valuable to his department, “given the fact that a lot of the rail lines in this state run through the unorganized territories where we would play a major role in fire suppression. We’re very impressed with DEP’s equipment and expertise.”

Mike Lange|Piscataquis Observer
TRAINING TRAIN — A Central Maine and Quebec Railway locomotive and tank car were used in the June 17 training exercise in Greenville Junction. The scenario was a capsized tanker leaking oil and the engine losing diesel fuel, close to the shore of Moosehead Lake.

Mike Lange|Piscataquis Observer
LOOKING FOR LEAKS — Two DEP workers simulate looking for leaks in a tank car in Greenville Junction during the June 17 training exercise.