Government Dangerous to Your Health : Regulation of toxic-substance transportation by rail is fragmented and ineffective

In one way, the California Public Utilities Commission enactment of more stringent rules governing the transportation of hazardous material couldn’t be more timely: It follows the devastating Dunsmuir railroad spill and a spill in Seacliff last month. But in another way, the timing points out the limitations of the PUC action: It is too late to undo the damage along a 45-mile stretch of the Sacramento River, and it is too little because the real railway regulatory power remains in the hands of the federal government.

Even before the July 14 Southern Pacific spill, which killed virtually everything in the river from Dunsmuir to Lake Shasta, the PUC had been working with rail, labor and emergency response officials to come up with better ways to handle the problems and dangers associated with the rail transport of hazardous material. The new regulations mainly will affect information gathering and the response to spills. For example, railroads finally must maintain 24-hour emergency response contacts along their routes and must notify local response teams and state and federal offices in the event of a toxic spill.

That’s fine as far as it goes, but it’s not very far. The basic problem is that the federal government, not the state, determines whether a substance is classified as hazardous. The pesticide that killed about 200,000 fish in the Sacramento River is not considered a “hazardous” chemical, although the Coast Guard classifies it as a dangerous marine pollutant. One official of the federal Environmental Protection Agency, testifying before a House subcommittee recently, was asked whether he might want to add that pesticide to the EPA’s hazardous list if it killed people as well as fish. He replied: “The number of fish killed or the number of people killed is not the criterion we use.”

Oh. Then just what would it take to be considered hazardous?

Unfortunately, there are several layers of federal agencies that have some say-so about what is transported and how it is transported. The PUC action is welcome, but by itself it can’t address the intense concern about the tons of herbicides, pesticides and other toxic materials that roll through California communities.

Lobbyists will battle any application of the “hazardous” label to their pet chemical products. So it won’t be easy for Washington to move. But it must, and California’s congressional delegation must continue to press and lead the way.