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Environmental Disasters at Railroad Facilities
By John Carter
In my last article, Environmental Site Assessments [July 26], I said that railroad property is something that you might not want to own. This is why!
If railroads are the lifeblood of this country, then freight yards are the table from which they are served. It has been almost two centuries since the railroad first made its appearance in America, and for most of that time there were no environmental regulations to prevent contamination of the land by railroad operations.
Virtually anything could be dumped from a railcar, and in most cases it was. In the case of freight yards, one might say that most if not all freight yards in the U.S. are contaminated. As bad as the yards are, maintenance facilities have the potential for being far worse.
Most of the activities that have taken place on the railroad and at its maintenance facilities have virtually remained unchanged throughout the history of this industry, and involve the use of various hazardous and potentially hazardous chemicals or other materials. The EPA and other regulating organizations break them down into three general categories:
(1) Railcar Refurbishing cleaning the exteriors and interiors of railcars using various chemicals, high-pressure washers, paint strippers, and paint.
(2) Locomotive Maintenance this changed drastically when the railroads switched from steam traction power to diesel after WWII. Today the most likely contaminants are likely to be from fueling operations involving diesel fuel, lubricating oils, greases, waste from used batteries, solvents, and cutting oils from machining operations. In the days of steam most of the same contaminants were present, but the use of coal compounded the contaminant mix by adding a plethora of heavy metals to the contaminant stream.
(3) Transportation Operations literally anything that occurs while the train is going over the tracks, including transporting hazardous materials, and other operations.
These activities continue to use many hazardous materials and produce a variety of hazardous wastes, spent solvents, combustible solids, acid solutions, oil and grease, paint wastes, and heavy metals. If we consider the activities associated with railroad operations, there are a number of potential environmental hazards that must be taken into consideration, which include:
Improper handling and disposal of spent solvents, sludges, spent acids and caustics from the maintenance of equipment and buildings.
PCB-contaminated soils and associated stormwater runoff from electrical generation areas or transformer concrete pads.
Soils and groundwater contaminated by petroleum as a result of railcar and locomotive maintenance shops, fuel storage areas, and machine and repair shops.
Improper stormwater runoff and inadequate wastewater treatment systems for wash water and spent acid and caustic solutions from railcar cleaning operations.
Leaks in above- and below-ground storage tanks.
Soils and groundwater contaminated with solvents and metals as a result of activities associated with railcar maintenance and painting operations, including spray paint booths, abrasive blasting operations, and other paint removal systems.
Air emission releases from stationary sources such as boilers, painting operations, shop blasting operations, dust control systems, fuel storage areas, and incinerators.
Improper management and disposal of locomotive and signal batteries, coolant and oil filters.
Miscellaneous heavy metals contamination associated with various painting and maintenance operations at rail yards.
Creosote, pentachlorophenol (PCP), and copper chromate arsenic (CCA) leeching from railroad ties or bridge timbers.
Hazardous materials release to soil or surface water due to an accidental release (due to leaking valves, leaking container doors, improper loading or unloading) from a railcar transporting the materials as freight.
Heavy metals and other contaminants associated with the use of coal and the disposal of coal ashes.
Other environmental contaminants include: acids and alkalis; antiseptics, engine cleaners, detergents and degreasers; cutting oils, hydraulic fluids and lubricants; chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) in refrigeration and air conditioning units; petroleum products; paints and primers containing heavy metals; paint thinners, paint enamels, primers, mineral spirits and epoxies; solvents of various kinds; non-recyclable lead acid batteries from signal and locomotive operations; spent nickel-cadmium and nickel-iron batteries; welding emissions; pitch, tar and derivatives; coal; herbicides, pesticides and rodenticides; wood preservatives used on railroad ties; and fumigants such as methyl bromide and sulfural fluoride.
Some of the specific chemicals and other hazardous materials include: asbestos, arsenic, lead, chrysene, naphthalene, dichlorobenzene, benzene, toluene, ethyl benzene, beryllium and thallium, xylene, vinyl chloride, trichloroethane, trichloroethene, methylene chloride, creosote, pentachlorophenol (PCPs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), sodium borate and sodium nitrate, copper and zinc napthalate.
Many historical problems affecting the railroad industry since it was in operation came about long before environmental laws and regulations were passed. It is common to see historical soil, surface water and groundwater contamination at sites from coal and petroleum-based products, heavy metals and other industrial contaminants. Rail yards tend to be located in industrially-zoned settings, as seen by the existing soil and groundwater conditions typically present at the site as well as adjacent properties. As a result of the industry's long history and the practices common before regulation, railroads and rail yards are at high risk for environmental exposures. And, here's why:
The activities associated with railroads, rail yards and railroad maintenance facilities are potentially dangerous because there are too many opportunities for the release of hazardous wastes and the misuse of toxic chemicals.
Over the years, leakage caused by poor maintenance and outright spills of oils, hazardous materials, creosotes, paints and solvents have contaminated most, if not all, rail yards in the U.S.
There are many hazardous materials shipped as freight on the railroad. In addition to concerns about the dangers of modern spills, there is also concern about historical releases of hazardous materials.
As rail yards changed hands, the environmental hazards were either sold undisclosed or bought unwittingly.
Occasionally housing, parks, or schools were built near or upon a hazardous site and the underlying dangers were not discovered until it was too late.
John Carter is President/ CEO of Geoteknika LLC, an environmental consulting firm, and has been actively involved with environmental issues since 1977.
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