Christie vetoes oil train bill that would have given first responders more emergency info

Scott Fallon
NorthJersey
An oil train idling in Teaneck in 2014.

Gov. Chris Christie refused to sign a bill Thursday that would provide local emergency responders with more information on the scores of trains hauling volatile crude oil through New Jersey, saying it could become a security threat. 

The measure, which was supported by firefighters, labor groups and environmentalists, required rail companies hauling hazardous materials to provide emergency response and cleanup plans with the state Office of Emergency Management. The state would then have to share those plans with county and municipal emergency personnel along rail routes like the 11 Bergen County towns where millions of gallons of oil pass through every week.

The bill would also require rail companies to provide on a publicly accessible website the routes and volumes of cargoes updated on a monthly basis, an analysis of the consequences of maximum discharges and a copy of the most current discharge response, cleanup and contingency plan. 

ENVIRONMENT:Trump's EPA cuts less severe under House plan

TEANECK:Council approves 5-cent charge for plastic bags

In his conditional veto, Christie said the public should not have access to route and volume information because the trains are potential terrorist targets. "Providing this information in a public forum is irresponsible and reckless," he wrote. 

Likewise, Christie said providing first responders with all of the information received by the state presents a similar security risk. 

Christie's conditional veto of the bill, S806, sends the measure back to the Senate with 20 changes that supporters say severely weakens the bill. 

"It's frightening now that if we have a disaster in a community like Bergenfield where you have tens of thousands of people near the rail line, that they don't have all the information they need," said Assemblyman Tim Eustace, D-Maywood, one of the bill's sponsors. 

The Professional Firefighters Association of New Jersey had said the bill was extremely important to its members. "Knowing the correct information is the only way first responders can properly plan, train and prepare for an emergency," Dominick Marino, president of the union, said when the Assembly passed it in March. 

The bill essentially targeted two rail companies – CSX and Norfolk Southern – that haul the oil through New Jersey to refineries. The oil originates in the Bakken region of North Dakota, which experienced a boom in production beginning in 2011.  Bakken crude has been involved in several large fires following train derailments, including one four years ago in a small Canadian town that killed 47 people. 

Demonstrators make a circle while holding up their placards in 2015 during a rally held by the Coalition to Ban Unsafe Oil Trains outside of the post office in Bergenfield, NJ.

CSX has been sending five to 15 oil trains from Albany, New York,  each week down a rail line on the western banks of the Hudson River into New Jersey. A company spokesman said there are sending less trains but did not elaborate in an email message.

They enter Northvale and pass through Norwood, Harrington Park, Closter, Haworth, Dumont, Bergenfield, Teaneck, Bogota, Ridgefield Park and Ridgefield before heading across central New Jersey on their way to a refinery in Philadelphia. CSX had been sending 15 to 30 oil trains last summer when the monthly average dropped. 

About a half-dozen Norfolk Southern trains each week haul crude oil from Pennsylvania across central New Jersey to the Bayway refinery in Linden. 

Rob Doolittle, a CSX spokesman, said Thursday evening that the company has trained first responders along the route and has given out some information to local emergency officials. 

"Gov. Christie’s decision acknowledges the tremendous value of those industry-community partnerships while protecting the integrity of security-sensitive information in a world with very real risks," he said.

Dan Fatton, executive director of the Work Environment Council that promotes better workplace conditions, said giving community members the right to know about rail car hazards allows them an opportunity to work with emergency responders and have a plan in place in case of a derailment.

“At the end of the day, we don't know what is moving through our communities," he said. "We don't know that rail companies have plans or financial ability to deal with disasters.”

Tank cars, possibly filled with oil, line the track by Cedar Lane in front of the Knights of Columbus Hall in Teaneck.