A $25,000 grant will provide new equipment and help train emergency responders who come to York County to learn how to handle hazardous materials.
The money comes from CSX, a rail transportation company whose trains haul crude oil nationwide. Its tracks cut through the Historic Triangle, leading to the Plains All American Pipeline site on the shores of the York River near Dandy.
Oil carried by those trains is then loaded onto barges at the PAAP site for shipment up and down the East Coast.
The grant money is heading to the Regional Hazardous Materials Site, created through a partnership between the Virginia Department of Emergency Management, the Virginia Association of Hazardous Materials Response Specialists and York County Department of Fire and Life Safety. It is used for training by first responders across Virginia to respond to incidents like a train derailment.
Although no hazardous train-related accidents have occurred in the area thus far, emergency responders in the area have watched as derailments elsewhere have caused significant damage. York County Assistant Fire Chief Paul Long said two members of his department went to Lynchburg immediately following last May’s derailment and fire in that city to watch how the situation was handled.
Another train heading to Yorktown from West Virginia derailed last month, causing more than 100 residents living near the derailment site in Mount Carbon to be displaced after at least 19 rail cars caught fire.
In 2013, a CSX train derailed in Haysi, Va., causing four cars to fall into the Russell Fork River. Two of the 15 derailed cars contained propionic acid and sodium hydroxide.
“[The incidents] serve as a reminder of the importance of having local first responders who are educated and trained on rail-related incidents,” said Kaitlyn Barrett, a spokesperson for CSX.
A study completed by the U.S. Department of Transportation last July said trains hauling crude oil or ethanol will derail at an average of 10 times a year over the next 20 years.
Locally, there’s a spot at the York County-Newport News line near the intersection of Fort Eustis Boulevard and Route 17 where crude oil could seep into the Poquoson River if a train derailment were to occur, according to York County Board of Supervisors Chairman Tom Shepperd.
“We have every reason to be concerned,” Shepperd said. “With that, what can local governments do? Essentially, very little.”
Despite these concerns, he praised the county’s training site and the hazmat team, saying the hands-on exercises added “a tremendous amount of realism to the training.”
CSX Director of Hazardous Materials Roman De Simone said in a news release announcing the contribution safety is the company’s main concern, especially when it comes to training responders to handle hazardous materials related to railroad incidents.
“CSX and first responders share a critical responsibility to protect Virginia’s communities,” he said. “Safety is our first priority, and we work to create educational, hands-on opportunities that help our responding partners be well prepared to make the best, fact-based decisions in the event of a railroad incident.”
“I feel very confident that our fire and life safety team is ready to take on a task if something should ever happen in York County,” Shepperd said.
York County’s hazardous materials response team includes firefighters, medics and company officers who are extensively trained and equipped to respond to nuclear, chemical, biological and hazardous materials threats.
The partnership between VDEM, York County and VAHMRS began in 2005 after the state assessed several sites and chose York County as the place that best met the needs of the state for hazardous materials training. Construction began in 2010, and the site officially opened in October 2011 with the annual Virginia Association of Hazardous Materials Response Specialists Hazmat Conference.
Training involves classroom teaching and practical experience in areas such as highway container simulations, rail emergency simulations and liquid and gas leaks.
Last year, 707 students received academic and practical instruction at the site, equating to 15,002 hours of instruction.
Chris Sadler, the assistant chief of the York County Department of Fire and Life Safety, said the grant would continue to provide state-of-the art training to Virginia’s emergency responders.
“An emergency response team’s ability is significantly strengthened when there is an opportunity to train in real life scenarios and work in situations relevant to today’s emergency response community,” he said in the news release.
