DeKalb County officials don’t sweat local rail traffic – or its cargo

DeKALB – About 45 times a day, red lights flash, striped gates lower and a freight train rolls through a DeKalb intersection.

Approximately 80 trains – some of them carrying hazardous chemicals – travel through DeKalb County daily.

Recent fiery derailments have spurred some suburban Chicago communities to push for stricter regulation of rail traffic, but local leaders and emergency personnel are not as perturbed. They say the trains ambling down the tracks through their towns are part of daily life. And like any other potential emergency, they are prepared for the worst.

“If you sit and look at the trains that go through DeKalb, there are hazardous materials on those trains,” DeKalb fire Chief Eric Hicks said. “You have to train.”

What’s coming down the tracks

Of the major railways running through DeKalb County, their respective spokesmen said up to four trains run on the Canadian National tracks in the northern part of the county. In southern DeKalb County, Burlington Northern Santa Fe runs about 30 trains daily. Meanwhile, the Union Pacific tracks that run through downtown DeKalb carry about 45 trains daily.

Union Pacific spokesman Mark Davis said trains moving through DeKalb run the gamut in terms of cargo. Produce cars moving from Washington state to the East Coast roll along the tracks about once a week, some coal cars and trains carrying automobiles also chug through town, Davis said.

But people won’t see mile-long trains, known as unit trains, of crude oil passing through the city.

That’s not the case in other areas. Crude-oil shipments by rail across the country have increased more than 40-fold in the past decade from about 9,500 carloads to 434,000 carloads in 2013, according to the National Transportation Safety Board. The source of the increase is the Bakken oil field in North Dakota, Montana and Canada, where hydraulic fracturing has unlocked a wellspring of natural resources.

U.S. Department of Transportation leaders have proposed rules that would replace older DOT-111 train cars that carry liquids such as crude oil in the wake of an oil train explosion last year in Lac-Megantic, Quebec. That disaster killed 47 people.

DeKalb Mayor John Rey said Metro West Council of Government, a group representing municipalities in DeKalb, Kane and Kendall counties, has supported the proposed rules. As the discussion at the federal and state levels continues, Rey said he will keep the changes in mind. But to him, trains, much like the truck traffic on Interstate 88, are a part of DeKalb life that is not going to go away.

“If [the shipments] are on quality tank cars, I give deference to the rail shippers to ensure transport standards,” Rey said.

Preparing for the worst

In Sandwich, Mayor Rick Olson is used to the 30 trains that travel through the middle of town daily. He’s not bothered so much by what is on the trains, but how much noise the train horns make. Rather than focusing on train car regulations, Olson said Sandwich leaders are in the early stages of seeking to become a quiet zone where train conductors can’t sound their horns.

“We’re pretty close to the tracks,” Olson said. “We understand that anytime you have transportation, you have the potential to have issues.”

Hicks and Davis said that’s where prevention and training local emergency personnel comes in.

Union Pacific annually hosts training in Pueblo, Colorado, where first responders from railroad towns spend a week. Hicks said DeKalb sends two firefighters every time they are invited; the latest invitation came this year.

DeKalb is also part of the Mutual Aid Box Alarm System Division 6 team, which trains for hazardous material emergencies as part of a statewide emergency response network. At times, the team trains with an airport crash truck carrying 500 gallons of fire-fighting foam that could be used in an emergency.

“We’re prepared to handle it,” Hicks said. “You just never know what’s going to cause it. It’s uncontrollable.”

Daily trains in DeKalb County

Union Pacific: 45

Burlington Northern Santa Fe: 30

Canadian National: 4

Source: Railroad spokesmen