Top Federal and Congressional Officials to Tour CSX Crash Site with Norton Wednesday (11/14/07)

Washington, DC-Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), who has long been concerned about railroad safety, particularly the transportation of hazardous materials through urban areas like the District; Federal Railroad Administrator Joseph Boardman; and Rep. Corrine Brown (D-FL), Chair of the Transportation and Infrastructure (T&I) Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines and Hazardous Materials, will tour the site of Friday's CSX train derailment into the Anacostia River at 1 pm tomorrow (Wednesday, November 14). The group will meet at the Anacostia skating rink. Norton asked the top federal and congressional officials with jurisdiction to accompany her to the site to see firsthand the nature of the accident and of the damage. The Congresswoman is a member of the T&I Committee, which has jurisdiction over railroads and bridges, and the Homeland Security Committee. Boardman and CSX officials called Norton immediately after six train cars with hundreds of tons of coal went into the river, after a CSX employee failed to secure the brakes while connecting to another group of cars, moving 89 train cars full of coal more than quarter mile. Ten went onto a bridge span that collapsed, which was closed due to structural problems, sending six of the cars into the river. The bridge that collapsed, and one immediately adjacent to it, both had undergone an emergency shutdown of service in November 2006. One bridge was temporarily repaired, to allow commerce to continue, while the one that collapsed on Friday was still under the shutdown order. Repairs were to begin in December. Norton is concerned that this accident is similar to one in Las Vegas, Nevada, where deadly chlorine gas rolled unattended for 20 miles, and another in New York, sending toxic chemicals into the Genesee River.

The CSX accident here comes as the House has passed the first bills for safer hazardous materials routes, worker safety, and improved bridges and other infrastructure in decades. Norton got an amendment to protect the District and other communities nationwide from dangerous hazardous material shipments included in the comprehensive Rail and Public Transportation Security Act that mandates federal regulations and penalties be developed to increase security and safety for public transit systems. The House also recently passed the Federal Railroad Safety Improvement Act, which sets forth additional rail safety requirements involving employee training and certification, and imposes new work rules that require longer rest periods, and limit work shift hours for rail workers.

Experts have informed Norton that while coal is a hazardous material, the main concern to the Anacostia is that the removal of the train cars and coal from the river will disturb decades of polluted silt and sediment on the bottom of the river. Local and federal officials are testing the water every two hours. "The degraded infrastructure, in combination with human error, highlights two concerns I have had for years: (1) the risk of catastrophic consequences from terrorism and from mishandling hazardous materials transported through an urban area, and (2) the urgent need post-9/11 to rebuild the nation's bridge and other infrastructure, which are clear and present dangers, with and without hazardous substances," Norton said. "The top federal and congressional officials who will come with me on Wednesday will get a rare site visit that can point the way to appropriate enforcement and oversight of our recently passed pertinent bills."