Camanche Iowa USA - A derailment of a train carrying hazardous materials in Ohio has heightened concerns of vocal rail merger opponents in the Quad-Cities.
 
Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern are approaching the final stages of seeking the federal Surface Transportation Board's approval to merge and form a single company rail line connecting Mexico to Canada, which the company says is expected to attract more rail traffic, upping the number of trains through eastern Iowa by three-fold.
 
Camanche City Adminstrator Andrew Kida called the developing news in East Palestine, Ohio, alarming to a similarly sized community like Camanche, which rebuffed the rail company's settlement offer and opposed the merger.
 
Investigators still are working to identify the scope of damage from the derailment of the Norfolk Southern train.
 
But it is known that several rail cars were carrying vinyl chloride, which was burned off in a controlled release, prompting an evacuation of East Palestine residents.
 
Molly Newel, who operates EnvironNET, Inc., in Davenport has been critical of the merger and train regulatory authorities.
 
Looking at Ohio, she said the burden is on taxpayers to clean up after derailments.
 
CP spokesperson Andy Cummings said railways, including CP, are legally required to transport hazardous materials as part of "common carrier obligations" in compliance with safety and environmental regulations.
 
Cummings said CP has the lowest train-accident frequency rate in North America and coordinates with first responders and other stakeholders to prepare for potential emergencies.
 
What Effect Could the Merger Have on Hazardous Releases in the Q-C?
 
A final environmental impact statement found overall the impacts of the merger, other than noise, would be negligible, temporary, and minor.
 
Likewise, the report found if the merger is approved, the number of hazardous material releases is expected to be low, and that the majority of releases are expected to be minor and quickly contained.
 
The report estimated 12.88 releases per year under the merger, compared to 10.36 without the merger.
 
The report added that any increase in hazardous releases would be partially offset by freight traffic migrating from trucks and other routes.
 
But Camanche's Kida said the report's conclusions give him little solace.
 
While the chances may be low, he said, the impact of a derailment on Camanche would be devastating.
 
Segments of the route in Iowa would see more than 43,000 additional hazardous carloads per year with the merger.
 
The report also calculated a change in the expected average number of rail related incidents.
 
The most dramatic change would be in the segment from Muscatine to Ottumwa, which would be expected to see a rail related incident once every 2.34 years as opposed to once every 9.35 years without the merger.
 
Cummings pointed to a section of the report, which says both CP and KCS "have established hazardous materials protocols, training, and emergency response practices that address emergency preparedness, prevention, and response. These plans identify available resources and procedures for responding to a potential incident involving hazardous materials."
 
He said a CP app, AskRail, gives first responders information about the hazardous materials a train is carrying and emergency railroad contacts.
 
A decision is expected in this quarter on whether the STB approves the merger.
 
Sarah Watson.