A freight train heads southbound near Sloan, Nev., south of Las Vegas, Wednesday, April 12, 2023.
Sunday, April 16, 2023 | 2 a.m.
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There are nearly 1,200 miles of Union Pacific Railroad track carrying freight through Nevada, its rail cars loaded with everything from coal and chemicals to consumer goods.
After a series of train derailments nationally, including one in Ohio involving hazardous materials that set off two days of fires and the release of toxic chemicals, Nevada lawmakers are considering actions to make the rail system safer in the state.
A proposal being considered at the Nevada Legislature would require devices be placed along railways to detect potentially defective equipment and alert the onboard crew. Assembly Bill 456 passed last week out the Assembly Committee on Growth and Infrastructure and is now headed to the full Assembly for consideration.
The proposal also calls for any train that has come to a complete stop and is blocking a railroad-highway crossing to be cut or moved to clear the way for emergency vehicles.
Supporters of the bill say the measures are needed to mitigate the risk of a derailment such as the one seen Feb. 3 in East Palestine, Ohio, where about 50 of the 150 rail cars on a train owned by Norfolk Southern Corp. derailed.
Twenty of the affected cars were loaded with hazardous materials, causing a spill of highly flammable toxic chemicals. The derailment triggered a controlled burn that created thick plumes of smoke visible from dozens of miles away, caused the evacuation of more than 1,500 residents and resulted in reports of widespread wildlife loss.
“While East Palestine is a relatively small town in comparison, if a similar event were to occur in a populated area such as Las Vegas or Reno, it could have a far-reaching impact on the tourism industry and the surrounding communities,” said Jason Doering, a veteran train conductor of 19 years and the Nevada legislative affairs director for the International Association of Sheet, Metal, Air and Transportation Workers, the largest union representing rail workers in the U.S.
He helped present the bill April 4 alongside Assemblyman Max Carter, D-Las Vegas, to the committee.
“The (East Palestine) accident has raised concerns about whether freight railroads have prioritized efficiency over safety, staffing and working conditions in their pursuit of increased profitability,” Doering continued.
Matthew Parker, a freight train conductor and Nevada legislative chair for the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, said rail giant Union Pacific — the only rail carrier that owns track and employs personnel in the state — began experimenting with train car lengths several years ago as a cost-cutting measure.
Now, Parker said, it’s not unusual for him to operate trains within the 12,000-foot to 15,000-foot range, meaning that some trains are nearly 3 miles in length. And if a train gets stuck at a highway crossing, it can block traffic for several hours at a time. It’s also not uncommon for train components to overheat and cause system failure (reports point to an overheated wheel bearing likely caused the East Palestine derailment).
“When this happens, what was once a modest inconvenience to deal with now becomes a catastrophic event, which stops all traffic on the tracks for several hours,” Parker testified.
That underscores the need for defect detectors, which the bill would require to be placed along tracks at 10- to 15-mile intervals, unless the surrounding terrain prohibits the ability to do so.
Union Pacific’s tracks in the Las Vegas area connect Los Angeles and Salt Lake City with the line’s eastern destinations.
Federal data show derailments have varied over the past decade but remain relatively low overall. Since 2014, Nevada has averaged about four derailments per year, with a high-water mark of eight reported in 2019. Only one during that stretch has required a hazmat response, according to figures kept by the U.S. Department of Transportation.
Five derailments were reported in Nevada last year.
In that same decade span, the DOT reports about 1,100 derailments have occurred annually across the nation. Federal officials recorded 1,376 derailments nationally in 2018, and derailments in the U.S. have decreased in three of the four years since.
Last month, at a U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing, U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., used the East Palestine derailment to underscore the need for laws that would require freight haulers to notify the state they are traveling in if they are transporting dangerous materials.
She used the now-shuttered Yucca Mountain nuclear repository northwest of Las Vegas as an example of the need for such a law.
“It would require the shipment of over 9,000 casks of high-level nuclear waste on 2,800 trains over the next 50 years through some of Nevada’s most visited and populated areas.” Cortez Masto said. “It’s a prime example of why state consent is critical. Shipments would pass through Nevada, and it is vital we have a buy-in from all impacted levels of government.”
But finding out what’s on those trains isn’t always easy, said Stephen Miller, an economics professor and director of research at the UNLV Center for Business and Economic Research. He said the university has been studying what cargo is passing through Nevada freight trains.
Miller said he couldn’t disclose the full scope of the university’s study as it remains ongoing. But federal data UNLV has been studying shows car parts, denatured ethanol and petroleum products as the chief imports coming into Las Vegas train depots.
Shashi Nambisan, director of the UNLV Transportation Research Center, said Las Vegas received most of its cargo imports from California, and that Las Vegas served as an important hub for goods heading out East.
It’s nearly impossible to say for certain whether an East Palestine-type crisis is likely to happen here. But with that derailment still fresh on the minds of many, it might only take one mistake to find out, Miller said.
“I mean, from the company’s point of view, the higher number of cars and trains reduces your cost,” Miller said. “But your costs are only reduced as long as you don’t have an accident.”
Assembly Bill 456 passed last week out the Assembly Committee on Growth and Infrastructure and is now headed to the full Assembly for consideration.
The bill has not been considered in the Nevada Senate.
