80 train cars carrying flammable gas parked in Schellville

2.4-million gallons of LPG in Schellville; ‘serious public safety issue,' says SMART|

There’s an estimated 2.4-million gallons of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) in 80 tank cars parked on a rail siding in Schellville and it could be a couple of months before they’re moved.

The tracks, south of Fremont Drive where Eighth Street East ends, belong to SMART, the Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit, but the commuter train agency didn’t know the almost two miles of tank cars were sitting on its tracks until one of its employees noticed.

SMART was told that there are 120 tank cars on the siding, about 80 of which are said to contain LPG – which is used in making the state’s winter gas mixture – but the refineries haven’t geared up to produce the blend yet. Each of the tankers holds 30,000-plus gallons which means there’s somewhere around 2.4 million gallons of a highly-flammable, hazardous substance parked on the siding.

The cars were moved there by the Northwestern Pacific Railroad, which is under contract to the North Coast Railroad Authority.

Mitch Stogner, the executive director of the North Coast Railroad Authority, said public safety is first and foremost.

He said the Federal Railroad Authority, or FRA, made an initial inspection and found no defects in the storage of the material.

“These cars are parked all over the Bay Area,” Stogner said. “Within the next two months, they’ll all head east at a very slow rate of speed.”

He said when the cars are moved, they’ll go to the Brazos Junction in Napa County, where they’ll be transferred to another railroad that’ll move them to the Fairfield-Suisun City area before being transferred again to the Union Pacific Railroad.

“We have procedures we have to follow – and we followed them,” he said. “None of the tanker cars are going anywhere near the passenger lines.”

This is the first time that cars containing LPG have been parked at the siding.

Schell-Vista fire Chief Ray Mulas said they’ve been watching the Northwestern Pacific Railroad bring the cars in for a couple of weeks. “They stage the cars around the area,” he said.

Mulas said his brother got a call from the railroad a couple of weeks ago informing him that they’d be bringing in a few tank cars.

“Technically, they (the railroad) don’t have to tell us they’re bringing the cars in,” he said.

SMART officials are concerned with the nearly two-miles of tank cars since they’ve received no safety plans nor hazardous material plans from the railroad.

“SMART is very concerned and we consider this a serious public safety issue,” said Jeanne Mariani-Belding, spokeswoman for SMART. “We have demanded that they remove this hazardous material immediately and that they provide us with their safety plan and their hazardous materials plan to ensure this cargo is removed safely and securely.”

She said SMART wants the issue resolved immediately and safely.

“This isn’t our cargo, but it’s out track,” she said.

There’s a meeting scheduled sometime this week with officials from the Northwestern Pacific, SMART, the FRA and the California Public Utilities Commission.

“Let’s see what the FRA says,” Stogner said.

Email Bill at bill.hoban@sonomanew.com.

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