Letter: Residents have right to know threats to rail safety
If you were regularly threatened with the possibility of going home at night and being blown up by morning, don't you think you'd have a right to know? When it comes to cargo carried by rail, you don't.
Approximately 20 trains over 100 cars in length carry highly toxic, explosive materials beside my home each day, and there's no requirement for public notification.
The Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act (SARA, 1986) protects communities by mandating disclosure of hazardous materials. Its third part, the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act, ensures our right to obtain information about toxic releases from facilities in our communities. This bill passed after an incident in Bhopal, India, where a single release killed at least 1,700 people and injured thousands more.
SARA establishes our right to access information concerning public health and safety, yet the rail industry refuses compliance. Executives initially skirted requirements, citing the National Security Act (1947) and Patriot Act (2005), both of which require quite the stretch of imagination to find even the most remote hint of application.
Railroads now hide behind the FAST Act Transportation Bill (2015). Here, protections obstruct "public release of proprietary or security-sensitive information to prevent release to unauthorized persons." Industry decides what's exempt from public disclosure, not our government.
Why is rail left out of regulatory discussions? Why do they call their own shots while other industries must follow rules for public disclosure?
We have a right to know about emergency response plans, hazardous materials carried, and worst-case scenarios. Industry should release insurance amounts, identity of the carrier, and specifically what's covered.
Contact your congressperson and demand our right-to-know. Nearly 400 hazardous materials are transported through our neighborhoods daily, some with over a 2-mile diameter blast zone and others kill within two breaths.
We have a right-to-know.
Jamie Burke
Lake Zurich