Peering through four panes of insulating glass, it’s not the noise that bothers Don Cohen as a daily parade of freight trains passes 50 feet outside his condo. He and some Riverfront Park neighbors are troubled by what they’re seeing on the tracks more frequently. Tanker trains carrying crude oil and other flammable liquids — reflecting a shift in energy trends — rumble past the gleaming high-rise condo and apartment buildings several times a week, he says.
Those tankers pass near other Denver neighborhoods, too, old and new, upscale and hardscrabble. Highways and railroads box in some areas, with only one way out if disaster were to strike.
The trains also travel near the city’s major sports venues and Elitch Gardens Theme and Water Park, raising fears among some about what might happen in a fiery derailment or other accident — however small the chances might be.
Appeals by Cohen and others to city officials for increased emergency planning have met with mixed success.
The issue prompted a rare budget amendment dispute in early November between Mayor Michael Hancock and a majority of the City Council, led by at-large member Debbie Ortega. Hancock rejected their amendment to fund a $250,000 outside safety study. Instead, he ordered up a working group, led by Fire Chief Eric Tade, that by July 1 will examine what more the city might do to reduce risks.
Cohen is among those underwhelmed by the response.
“We’re sort of mystified that the city, the state — nobody really thinks there’s a problem here,” said Cohen, the president of the Riverfront Park Association, which represents residents and businesses in 17 buildings.
Residents of the Central Platte Valley, which once was full of rail yards, moved in knowing that trains on the consolidated tracks were part of the landscape, Cohen said, but the tanker trains have raised the risk. More than 5,000 people live there.
Scott Field, executive director of Denver’s Office of Emergency Management, says his staff and other safety agencies have taken the increasing dangers seriously, incorporating the issue into risk-assessment planning.
Nationally, crude oil volume on the rails has skyrocketed from just shy of 10,000 tank cars in 2008 to about 500,000 last year, The Associated Press recently reported. In Denver, according to city officials’ summary of reports by the two major railroads, trains carried well over 15,000 tank cars of flammable liquids in a recent one-year period, including 8,000 filled with crude oil.
“Most of what we’re seeing is from the Niobrara (shale) formation, which is in northern Colorado and southern Wyoming,” Field said. Often, it’s headed to Gulf Coast refineries.
“We’re certainly not getting as many shipments as many places are, but we’re certainly getting more than we used to,” Field said. “It’s absolutely a concern that we’re looking at.”
But 2013 delivered a wake-up call for emergency planning officials and advocates alike when an oil train derailed in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec. The resulting explosion and fire leveled part of the town and killed 47 people.
The disaster underlined the risk, including from oil spills, faced by many cities and towns across North America that are along rail routes ferrying crude from emerging shale formations to refineries.
Kathryn Haight, another condo owner, cited the Quebec incident during the council’s budget hearing. “I bring this example up,” she said, “because in asking the question about an anticipated response from Denver, we were met with this: ‘We’ll bring foam in from DIA.’
“Really? If that’s our plan, we’re in trouble.”
The Denver Fire Department works with the Union Pacific and Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroads on hazardous-material response training for firefighters. A tanker-fire exercise is scheduled with BNSF on Dec. 3, a fire department spokeswoman said.
Asked about the risk, the railroads cited long-term improvements in safety and ongoing measures they take. The railroad industry also operates a national emergency-response training center for first-responders in Pueblo.
Both railroads provide confidential hazardous material freight data to local safety agencies, including Field’s, that they don’t release publicly because of security concerns.
Still, Ortega recently suggested Denver should add new emergency planning and fire positions to focus on the issue. Field confirmed that his office had looked at dedicating more money to the issue in city budget discussions but said more evaluation was needed first.
For now, Field said, the city has “a reservoir of experts” fit for the job.
The mayor’s office says the new railroad safety working group will begin meeting in January. Besides city departments, officials plan to tap representatives from the council, the community, railroad companies, the state Department of Transportation and the Federal Railroad Administration.
Jon Murray: 303-954-1405, jmurray@denverpost.com or @JonMurray
