[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 3]
[Senate]
[Pages 3441-3442]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  TRAIN DERAILMENT IN GALENA, ILLINOIS

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, hundreds of firefighters are in town this 
week to talk about legislative issues. I was honored to speak at the 
International Association of Fire Fighters conference and meet with 
firefighters from Illinois on Monday to thank them for keeping us safe.
  Their visit is particularly timely given a couple of serious train 
accidents in the past few days. One accident, a derailment, happened in 
Galena, IL, last Thursday. Twenty-one cars carrying Bakken crude oil 
from North Dakota derailed there and five of them caught fire. 
Fortunately, the accident happened 2 miles outside the city, so no one 
was killed or injured. It was a potentially deadly accident, though, 
and we are very lucky no one was hurt. The fire burned for days.
  Brave men and women from the Galena Fire Department were the first on 
the scene. Like many fire departments throughout the U.S., the Galena 
Fire Department is an entirely volunteer force. The area where the 
crash occurred is in a wetland where the Galena River meets the 
Mississippi. The first responders had to use a bike path to get to the 
crash site. I want to thank Galena Fire Chief Randy Beadle for his 
leadership in tackling this disaster. Galena Assistant Fire Chief Bob 
Conley also helped coordinate the first response. While most people 
would run away from something like this, firefighters run toward the 
flames. We owe a debt of gratitude to them.
  I spoke with Galena Mayor Terry Renner the evening of the crash. I 
let him know I was ready to help in any way I could. Others on the 
ground whose efforts were critical to the local response include: 
Galena City Administrator Mark Moran, Jo Daviess County Board Chairman 
Ron Smith, County Administrator Dan Reimer, County Sheriff Kevin 
Turner, and County Emergency Management Agency Director Chuck Pedersen.
  First responders were not sure if the oil from the derailed train 
cars might make its way to the Mississippi River--just half a mile 
away. To be on the safe side, BNSF erected a berm in the river to catch 
any runoff, either from the train cars themselves or from runoff from 
firefighters' hoses. Now the cleanup really begins. The EPA will vacuum 
up the spilled oil from the ground and test the soil below for 
contamination. Even if the oil did not reach the Mississippi, this was 
too close a call.
  These types of accidents are happening more frequently and the 
potential for catastrophe is great. This is not the first time Illinois 
has seen such a derailment. In 2009, one person was killed in Cherry 
Valley; and in 2011, 800 residents of Tiskilway were evacuated after a 
massive explosion. The National Transportation Safety Board found the 
weakness of these cars added to the severity of both explosions.
  Recently we have seen these dangerous derailments across the country 
and in Canada. It happened in West Virginia last month, and another yet 
this weekend in Ontario, Canada. Of course, the most severe incident 
occurred in Quebec in 2013, when a train

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carrying crude oil derailed and exploded, killing 47 people.
  I urge the administration to act swiftly to finalize rules that 
increase safety standards for the train cars. We need to ensure these 
cars have the strongest safety measures and that the old tank cars are 
taken off the track. Booming oil production in the Bakken region has 
caused an exponential increase in crude oil shipments in recent years. 
Last year, railroads carried almost 650,000 carloads of oil. In 2008 
they carried just 9,500 carloads. Not only are the quantities greater, 
but some of this crude oil is believed to be more volatile. More 
traffic and more volatile crude means more disasters. Improving freight 
rail safety is more critical than ever before.
  We feel this impact in Illinois, where we have the second most 
railroad track in the country. Approximately 25 percent of all U.S. 
rail traffic passes through densely populated Chicago.
  We are lucky that the fiery train derailment in Galena was not closer 
to homes, businesses, and schools. Trains just like the one that 
crashed travel through cities and suburbs on a daily basis. If a wreck 
like this one happens closer to a developed area, we might see 
thousands of people evacuated--not to mention the potential for 
injuries or fatalities. It is not a risk we should be willing to take.

                          ____________________