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Terrorist Threat: Dangerous Cargo Passes Through Washington D.C., Each Day!

In the News

Washington Post Editorial
A Clear Risk to the City
September 14, 2005

THE BUSH administration, pertinent congressional committees and the D.C. government are all aware of a study showing that an attack on a single railroad tank car of chlorine traveling through a crowded nation's capital could:

* Kill or seriously harm 100,000 people within an hour.
* Set off a toxic plume that could extend over 40 miles.
* Leave deadly a core area of about 4 miles by 141/2 miles.

It is also true that while the D.C. government has enacted a law to deal with the issue, the federal government has taken no serious steps to prevent chemicals that are toxic if inhaled from being shipped through the District. What's more, the Justice Department and CSX Transportation Inc., rather than supporting D.C. legislation that sought to regulate the transport of ultra-hazardous materials through the city, instead obtained a court order to stop the District from enforcing its law.

As a result of federal opposition to local efforts, an undisputed risk to life and safety in the Washington region is unabated. Credit D.C. Council member Kathy Patterson (D-Ward 3) with bringing this danger to the public's attention and for marshaling legislative support on the council for a solution -- "to reduce the risk of an attack by removing the target from our midst," as she told the Department of Homeland Security in a letter yesterday. Again, Mrs. Patterson was putting her finger on the problem.

Mrs. Patterson was responding to a proposed Department of Homeland Security rail security plan that aims to protect city residents by installing surveillance cameras along seven miles of CSX Transportation tracks. She noted that the cameras "would, surely, provide historical documentation of what vehicle or what individuals gained sufficient proximity to the CSX tracks to blow up a 90-ton tanker full of chlorine -- after the fact of thousands of deaths." She rightly notes that the Homeland Security plan would not prevent a suicide bomber from accessing the tracks. It would only record the bomber doing the dastardly deed. Hooray.

Residents, visitors, members of Congress and the Supreme Court deserve better. They need a federal plan that prevents, rather than simply detects, an attack on the city. On that score, nothing less than rerouting ultra-hazardous materials -- dangerous, toxic-by-inhalation cargo -- around densely populated communities at high risk of attack, such as the nation's capital, will do. Alternative routes for such chemicals are needed here in the District and for other high-risk communities around the nation. The difficulty of the challenge is no reason for the federal government to avert its gaze from this potential nightmare. It must either step up to the problem now or try to explain away the poor federal planning for a catastrophe in yet another national disaster's after-action report.

The Wall Street Journal
Graffiti Artists Put Their Mark On War Against Terrorism
Sneaking Into Rail Tunnels, They Sound an Alarm Over Hazardous Cargo
By Robert Block
Jan. 23, 2004

At 2 a.ms. on a wet Wednesday last month, a graffiti artist who calls himself Serk was in a railroad tunnel not far from the Washington Monument, spray-painting his tag on the wall in bright blue, orange and magenta. On the adjacent tracks, less than 10 yards away, a train hauling toxic chemicals rolled by.

"See?" Serk whispered after the last car passed. "It wouldn't be hard at all for someone like al Qaeda to wait right here for the right train with the right poison and bang! Goodbye, Washington ."

Normally Serk prefers to talk about paint, not politics. But in recent months, he and several of his friends have become important players in a local legislative struggle. Washington 's city council is considering passing a law to regulate or even ban the movement of dangerous chemicals through the District of Columbia on the grounds that such shipments are tempting targets for terrorists. If the statute passes next month, Washington would be the first city in the country to regulate all shipments of hazardous materials passing through by rail and road. Hearings on the proposal start Friday.

Los Angeles Times
WMD in Our Own Backyard, Trains Loaded with Toxic Chemicals Put Millions at Risk
By Jonathan Turley
Jan. 18, 2004

Since Sept. 11, President Bush has repeatedly stressed that the country is at war and that we all must make sacrifices for national security. Indeed, hundreds of soldiers have been killed or wounded in Afghanistan and Iraq. Environmental laws and civil liberties have been rolled back. Citizens must shoulder a projected 10-year deficit of up to $5 trillion.

However, at least some corporate citizens are being held to a different standard — requiring neither sacrifice nor security. When it comes to the giant railroad company CSX, even a threat to the government seems an insufficient reason to threaten profits.

CSX operates a stretch of highly lucrative rail line that passes through the heart of Washington . The company uses it to move huge tank cars filled with poisonous chemicals, considered by the Department of Transportation as "toxic by inhalation." The same type of chemicals killed thousands of people in 1984 in Bhopal, India. For example, CSX routinely moves 90-ton tank cars of chlorine through the capital, above ground, within four blocks of Congress.

Meanwhile, the trains continue to roll. Let's just hope that Al Qaeda will remain so focused on nail clippers as a weapon of choice that it will not notice the slow-moving trains of explosive poisonous gas passing through the heart of our capital.

Chemical Week
Washington City Council Debates Hazmat Rerouting Bill
By Kara Sissell
February 4, 2004

Chemical and rail representatives are lobbying to kill a bill pending in the Washington D.C. City Council that would require most carriers of hazardous materials to bypass the city. Proponents of the bill say that the various federal antiterrorism measures do not require carriers to even consider rerouting hazardous cargoes away from cities considered to be a target for terrorists.

Environmental groups, emergency responders, and some health care professionals say the bill is needed to protect the city, which the government says is one of the most likely terrorist targets. The bill's supporters say that rerouting hazardous materials through smaller, less high-profile communities is not shifting the burden elsewhere because those areas are less likely to be terrorist targets.

"If we force shipments to go west of the city, we are taking the target off the map," says Fred Millar, a member of D.C.'s local emergency response committee and a former Friends of the Earth activist. The ban on hazardous shipments passing through D.C. during the State of Union speech last month also reflects an unwillingness by lawmakers to protect the people as well as they protect themselves, Millar says.