Legalectric

At the February 11, 2015 meeting of the Silica Sand Advisory Panel, at least two of the agency speakers said they wanted comments on the rule drafts in 30 days or so, and that 30 days is almost up.  BUT, it’s been hard to find those drafts, and it’s even harder to make comments on something not findable!  They are not posted on the Advisory Panel site.

Also, I’ve heard several times that “the legislature will block these new rules” or some such, and I can’t get a read on what exactly is the concern, but the legislature isn’t going to block rulemaking because there’s nothing the legislature can do to block a rulemaking proceeding, it does not require legislative approval.  Now they could change the law, and repeal the rulemaking requirement, but change the law?!?!  That’s highly unlikely “they” could.

The deadline is extended to March 18 via an email from Nathan Cooley, MPCA:

Dear Panel Members and Alternates,

In addition to the reminder of a deadline to provide your input (which Heather asked me to extend from Friday 3/13 to Wednesday 3/18/2015), staff have asked me to forward working copies of preliminary draft working language in MS Word format to improve input convenience:

Thanks!

Sincerely,

 

Nathan Brooks Cooley

Rulemaking Coordinator

651-757-2290 v

651-297-8676 x

Big thanks to Nathan Cooley and Catherine Neuschler of the MPCA for being responsive and coughing up the drafts!  Both PDFs and WORD are below, because track changes may be helpful:

PDF Draft Rules:

DNR Rule (pdf) Draft Silica Sand Reclamation Rule_2015_03_03

MPCA Air Emissions (pdf) 20141125 Draft Silica Sand Emission Rule (3)

MPCA Air Monitoring (pdf) EXHIBIT M

EQB Rule (pdf) Preliminary EQB_Draft Rules_ Definitions__2_19_2015

WORD Draft Rules (for track changes comments):

DNR Rule (docx) Draft Silica Sand Reclamation Rule_2015_03_03

MPCA Air Emissions (docx) 20141125 Draft Silica Sand Emission Rule (3)

MPCA Air Monitoring (docx) EXHIBIT M

EQB Rule (docx) Preliminary EQB_Draft Rules_ Definitions__2_19_2015

Have at it, folks, and get your comments to your Silica Sand Advisory Panel Representatives:

Local government representatives

• Keith Fossen, Hay Creek Township
• Allen Frechette, Scott County
• Kristi Gross, Goodhue County and Minnesota Association of County Planning and Zoning Administrators
• Beth Proctor, Lime Township
• Lynn Schoen, City of Wabasha

Citizen representatives

• Jill Bathke, resident of Hennepin County (MCEA)
  
• Katie Himanga, resident of Lake City
• Jim McIlrath, resident of Goodhue County
• Vince Ready, resident of Winona County
• Kelley Stanage, resident of Houston County

Industry representatives

• Doug Losee, Unimin Corp.
• Tom Rowekamp, IT Sands LLC
• Aaron Scott, Fairmount Minerals
• Brett Skilbred, Jordan Sands and Industrial Sand Council
• Mike Wallenius, Unimin Corp.
• Tara Wetzel, Mathy Construction and Aggregate and Ready Mix Association

BNSF Update (21 cars derailed, 5 burning)

Another BNSF Bakken oil BOOM! train has derailed and blown up.  Evacuations are happening as I type within a 1 mile radius of the wreck.  DOH!  How much more of this will we have to take?

Access will be a problem on this one too, “had to access it by bike trail.”  Great, just great… They couldn’t get to the source of the fire, and had to leave quickly for safety reasons, abandoning over $10k of equipment at the site.  They’re going to “let it burn out.”  Could be a while.  EPA is on way from Chicago, BNSF crews from area.  There’s some good video on the KWQC link way below.   The oil is going down from the railroad grade, burning, and trees down there are on fire too, it’s a wooded area, and could go up in flames.  It’s not directly on the river, but the river isn’t that far away.

Dubuque Telegraph Herald — UPDATE: Evacuations underway as railcars burn near Galena

WQAD: Train carrying oil derails near Galena, Illinois

STrib: BNSF freight train loaded with crude oil derails near Illinois city of Galena, catches fire

Chicago Sun-Times: State agencies mobilize after crude oil train derails near Galena

Posted at Chicago Sun-Times:

KWQC: Clean-up crews on scene at train derailment site near Galena, Ill.

Visible on the ski slope cameras:  Live slope top cameras located at Chestnut Mountain Ski Resort.  Dark now, but should be visible again tomorrow.

Reuters: BNSF oil train derails in rural Illinois; two cars aflame

KWWL: UPDATE: 8 train cars derail; 2 continue to burn crude oil

STOP SHIPPING NOW!  DO NOT SHIP ONE MORE DROP OF BAKKEN CRUDE UNTIL IT’S DEGASIFIED.  NOT ONE DROP, BY RAIL, BY PIPELINE, BY TANKER TRUCK, BY BARGE, NOT ONE DROP UNTIL IT’S DEGASIFIED!

News Reports:

Governor declares state of emergency after oil train derails, sets house ablaze

West Virginia Train Derailment Sends Oil Tanker Into River

Crude Oil Train Derails in Fayette County, WV

WCHS Updates

From Bakken.com: CSX oil train derails in W. Virginia, 14 cars on fire

It’s happened again, another Bakken BOOM! train derailment and explosion.  And where did the wreck happen?  BOOMER BOTTOM, West Virginia… really!  At least 14 cars are reported derailed, one went into a  home and blew up, destroying the home.  Water supply is drawn from the river and has been shut off, oil on the river is burning. Route 61 has been shut off at the Montgomery bridge.  Power is off because flames melted powerlines.   Two towns evacuated, one person hospitalized so far, no deaths reported yet.

How many explosions; how many homes, businesses, riverbanks must be burned and leveled; how many people must die before the DOT puts its foot down?  DEGASIFY!  How long are we going to take this?

This is not rocket science.  Bakken oil is exceedingly, dangerously volatile, much more so that typical crude.  It MUST be degasified before it is transported by any means, by pipeline, by rail, by truck, NO, DO NOT SHIP, it’s an explosion waiting to happen.

Here’s the DOT letter regarding degasifying:

1_2_14 DOT Rail_Safety_Alert

I hope you’re as pissed off about this as I am — and remember, it’s better to be pissed off than pissed on.  Please take a few seconds and dash off a note to our Senators and Representatives to demand that Bakken crude be degasified before it’s shipped, starting NOW!

Send a simple message to all federal Senators and Representatives:

Shipping this Bakken oil without degasifying it first is TOO DANGEROUS.  IMMEDIATE MORATORIUM on shipments of Bakken oil, not one drop to be shipped until it is degasified, whether by rail, pipeline, truck tanker, or barge, not one drop moves until its degasified.

In Minnesota:

EMAIL SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR

EMAIL SEN. AL FRANKEN

CongressCritters HERE. 

Minnesota Representatives — name is linked to their site:

District	Name	Party	Room	Phone	Committee Assignment
1	Walz, Timothy J.	D	1034 LHOB	202-225-2472	Agriculture Armed Services Veterans’ Affairs
2	Kline, John	R	2439 RHOB	202-225-2271	Armed Services Education and the Workforce
3	Paulsen, Erik	R	127 CHOB	202-225-2871	Ways and Means
4	McCollum, Betty	D	2256 RHOB	202-225-6631	Appropriations
5	Ellison, Keith	D	2263 RHOB	202-225-4755	Financial Services
6	Emmer, Tom	R	503 CHOB	202-225-2331	Agriculture Foreign Affairs
7	Peterson, Collin C.	D	2204 RHOB	202-225-2165	Agriculture
8	Nolan, Rick	D	2366 RHOB	202-225-6211	Agriculture Transportation

Here’s the quick message I sent — so simple:

Another Bakken BOOM! train has exploded in West Virginia.  These trains go through Minnesota every day, here in Red Wing every day, and look what happens!  They explode.   All Bakken crude must be degasified before shipment by ANY means.  Please get on this today and introduce a bill requiring degasificaiton of Bakken crude before shipment.

Take a few minutes and just do it.  NOW!

And in the meantime, here’s an insurance industry take:

‘Degassing’ North Dakota Crude Before Shipping Among Safety Ideas

Please attend the DNR hearing on Burlington Northern’s request to build a second rail line in the La Crosse River Marsh. 

2-5 p.m., Wednesday January 7

Black River Beach Center
1433 Rose Street
La Crosse, WI

• Attend the meeting and bring friends:  A room filled with concerned citizens has an impact.  The press and DNR will take note.  We can have an impact on the discussion and decision.
• Speak at the meeting if you are willing.  You don’t have to be expert.  Just say why the marsh is important to you and what your concerns are about train traffic, more of it, and the risks involved.  Keep on point about the La Crosse River Marsh and the BNSF rail.  This is what the meeting is for.
• Ask for an “Environmental Impact Statement” (EIS).  This project warrants an EIS because of it scale, implications for safety and health, and broad public concern.  An environmental expert would be hired at BNSF’s expense to assess the current use and health of the marsh, provide a baseline for future cumulative impact studies, and result in the best possible solutions if approval is given.  It would be paid for BNSF.
• There is no guarantee that money BNSF pays for loss of flood plain will return to La Crosse.  Ask the DNR to find a way for BNSF to pay for improvements to the Marsh to minimize the impact of lost flood plain.
• Provide written comments to the DNR before, during, or within 10 days after the meeting.   A paper trail has significant impact now and for the future.  Here is a link to help:  Click here for help on drafting a letter.

• For citizens to make the DNR aware of the importance of the Marsh and risks of this project, to share concerns, and to ask questions.
• To provide the DNR with information to make well-informed decisions that would prevent construction of a second rail or reduce the risks and impacts.

• Rail transport of Bakken crude in unsafe DOT-111 tankers has skyrocketed to about six 100-car trains daily (430,000 barrels).  Enbrige’s Alberta Clipper Pipeline carries 450,000 barrels per day.  Essentially BNSF railway is a “rolling pipeline” through the Upper Mississippi Refuge and the Marsh.
• Spills are over 3 times more likely per mile by rail oil transport than by pipeline.  There has been more than one spill per day from tankers this year in the US.  Some have destroyed marshes and seriously polluted rivers.
• Spills into marshes are virtually impossible to clean up.  There is no effective, acting model for marsh spill containment. A large spill would destroy the Marsh’s ecosystem.
• Proposed expansion would eliminate 7.28 acres of marsh, which will not be replaced in or near Myrick marsh, and may not even happen within the La Crosse watershed.

• Could increased vibration, noise, and pollution threaten habitat for species such as rare black terns and yellow headed blackbirds as well as many other species?
• Floodplain will be removed.  With the increased occurrence of local flooding, is the 100-year flood criteria used by the DNR still sufficient to protect citizens?  To prevent flood insurance increases?
• Could our local Hazmat team prevent a spill from spreading to the Mississippi?
• Who will pay for training for first responders?
• Who would pay for any clean-up should there be a problem?

But remember it has happened elsewhere.  It’s happened recently in Lynchburg, Aliceville, Lac Megantic, and Casselton (twice in one year!).  Imagine La Crosse with a fouled, dead Marsh and oil-contaminated La Crosse River flowing through the city to Riverside Park and into the Mississippi.  That is the risk.

Let’s do all we can to prevent it!  See you at 2-5 p.m. Wednesday, January 7th.  And please forward this email to friends!

Sincerely,

CARS, Citizens Acting for Rail Safety

Ralph Knudson, Nancy Heerens-Knudson, Irv Balto, Marina Dvorak, Maureen Freedland, Bruce Kuehmichel, Chuck Lee, Carolyn Mahlum-Jenkins, Curtis Miller, Fred Nicklaus, George Nygaard, Rich Pein, Karen Ringstrom, Jeff Sexton, Jan Stack, Alan Stankevitz,  Guy Wolf

For timely news on rail safety: DOT-111 READER

Facebook: CARS, Citizens for Rail Safety

Website: Citizens Acting for Rail Safety

Email:  citizensforrailsafety@gmail.com

To help defray costs of flyers, copies, ink, photos, etc, please send a check for any amount.  Please be aware that CARS does not have tax-exempt status for deductions.Thank you!

CARS
Citizens Acting For Rail Safety
Jeff Sexton, Treasurer 

2820 Cass Street
La Crosse,‎ WI‎    54601 

The silica sand rulemaking process drags on and will probably end soon.  Meetings have been going on for a year now, and what is there to show for it?  Not much.  But as of yesterday, there are some draft rules!  YES!  About time…

There was a Comment Period that ended in November, and here are the Comments:

MPCA’s rulemaking – Response to second request for comments

Very few comments were filed — only 10 (I’d attached a previous comment to this one, but it was stuck separately at the top of the pile) — why so few comments, what’s up with that?

As for rulemaking, there’s been a little bit of progress reported by Katie Himanga (THANK YOU, Katie!) after yesterday’s meeting of the “Advisory Panel.”  Word from that meeting is that “ALL AGENCIES PLAN TO GO TO PUBLIC NOTICE IN THE 1ST QUARTER OF 2015.”  And so it looks like the January 8 meeting will be the last one, January 8 is scheduled, and no others show on the Advisory Panel site (but they could always add more, as they have in the past).

The Agenda is posted, but the meeting materials weren’t there yet.  So I checked with Nathan Cooley, and he sent them right over:

20141204 10th SSRAP Agenda

20141125 Draft Silica Sand Emission Rule (Draft Proposed Rules Governing Emissions from Silica Sand Projects)

DEFINITIONS_EQB (silica sand related definitions, rule and statute)

EXHIBIT M (AMBIENT AIR MONITORING PROCEDURES for
DETERMINATION OF COMPLIANCE, 12/18/2013)

SSRAP__DRAFT EQB__12__4__2014_CLEAN (this is proposed language to insert silica sand mines/project/facilities into EAW and EIS categories)

Here’s how Cooley ended that missive, definitely a “don’t call me, I’ll call you” sort of finale:

There is no current request for public comment on silica sand rulemaking. We remain focused on seeking representative input from the SSRAP panel. Thanks for your interest and your understanding.

Well, Advisory Panel, he’s saying it’s up to you!  You’re our representatives!