Subj : Re: Trains
To   : Ky Moffet
From : Daryl Stout
Date : Sun Feb 26 2023 02:30:00

Kyle,

 KM> Ask yourself:

 KM> If the pets are dying, why aren't the little kids dying?

  All of us will, eventually.

  Never mind "don't drink the water".

 KM> While breathing this crap is bound to be hazardous, there's evidently a
 KM> lot of coincidence being ascribed to it, and possibly some staged
 KM> animal deaths when someone sees dollar signs on the horizon. (Chickens
 KM> artfully arranged on the ground do not convince me; they're not gonna
 KM> die evenly spread out like that.) Kids are at least as susceptible as
 KM> dogs and piglets, and should die at about the same rate.

  Good point.

 KM> Setting the contents on fire because (as they said) they feared an
 KM> explosion (meaning the tanks were NOT leaking) -- was quite possibly
 KM> the dumbest thing they could have done, ensuring the widest possible
 KM> distribution of the worst possible byproducts. Didn't those cars have
 KM> pressure relief valves? If not, why not?? My inner chemist opines that
 KM> just venting them would have been far less hazardous than the burn
 KM> products, and easier to deal with (frex, vent through a precipitating
 KM> solution; ordinary salt water likely would have worked).

  All railroads should also have hazmat trains that first responders can
train on, in dealing with things like this. They are also supposed to
check the wheels of each car, spending 3 minutes on each one...but most
trains would seemingly never leave the yard. They feel that "time is money",
but it'd cost more afterwards if there was a derailment.

 KM> The railroad may have been responsible for the derail, but whoever
 KM> decided fire was a better solution is responsible for the secondary
 KM> effects. If the tanks hadn't already exploded, and were not yet
 KM> leaking, they weren't real likely to. At the very least, they should
 KM> have consulted an industrial chemist.

  The other thing is to be sure that whatever this stuff is hauled in, is
durable enough to handle it. One tanker was to haul what was basically
corrosive lye...there wasn't much left of the tanker, but the customer
wasn't willing to pay extra.

 KM> The stupid, it's nuclear....

  If I remember right, nuclear waste has been hauled by rail.

Daryl

.... He was promoted beyond his level of incompetence.
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