UTU News Digest - Wednesday, February 3,1999

UTU Daily News Digest

Information of interest to operating railroad and transportation employees

Wednesday, February 3, 1999

Journal of Commerce: BMWE appeals decision on Conrail

WASHINGTON -- The Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes has appealed an arbitrator's decision arising from the acquisition of Conrail Inc. by Norfolk Southern Corp. and CSX Corp.

The appeal, which will not delay the scheduled June 1 division of Conrail property, will be heard by the Surface Transportation Board.

Established procedure requires any revision of labor agreements to reflect the changed circumstances of workers affected by a merger. If labor and management believe they cannot reach agreements, either side can request arbitration, a step that NS and CSX sought in October.

NS and CSX proposed to break up the existing BMWE work force on Conrail and assign employees to work under each of the buying carriers' labor agreements except in three jointly served areas.

The buyers also sought to abolish most Conrail seniority districts and scheduled the transfer of dozens of Conrail employees from two maintenance facilities that would be closed.

The arbitrator in the case, William Fredenberger Jr., sided with the carriers on all major issues, including the allocation of employees, contract coverage, subcontracting of some work and the job status of transferred workers.

NS and CSX won the right to retain employees who were working on the portion of Conrail they purchased and reassign them in seniority districts defined by the acquiring carriers. The union had sought to let affected employees bid for new jobs, which the arbitrator rejected because he thought that would delay the implementation process.

After the split, Conrail's BMWE workers will fall under NS and CSX contracts, except in jointly served areas. The arbitrator reasoned that the buyers' agreements should apply because retention of the Conrail contract would detract from merger efficiencies.

The award also appears to give the carriers the ability to subcontract future track upgrading and capacity improvement projects.

The arbitrator ruled that those projects are temporary work that would cause implementation delays due to required hiring and subsequent layoff of hundreds of employees.

Workers who are transferred from Conrail maintenance facilities in Canton, Ohio, and Harrisburg, Pa., were allowed to follow their work to NS and CSX facilities over the objection of other unions that represent shop workers on the buying carriers.

Some shopcraft unions had questioned the qualifications of Conrail workers who will be transferred.

JOC: Shippers groups urge Senate to support rail competition

WASHINGTON -- A group of 15 organizations whose members ship goods by rail urged the leadership of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee to support legislation that would address competitive policy changes for the industry.

The letter was a response to introduction of a bill last month by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Sen. Ernest Hollings, D-S.C., that would reauthorize the Surface Transportation Board without any changes in the policy mission of the agency that regulates railroads.

"We urge you to support legislative changes that are necessary to ensure that the system of law designed to protect rail customers against unreasonable rates and poor service is improved and urge you not to consider STB reauthorization legislation without also addressing rail customers' proposals," the letter said.

Among the groups signing the letter were: Alliance for Rail Competition; Consumers United for Rail Equity; American Farm Bureau Federation; American Forest & Paper Association; Society of the Plastics Industry; American Public Power Association; Fertilizer Institute; Chemical Manufacturers Association; Edison Electric Institute; National Association of Wheat Growers, and the Clay Producers Traffic Association.

NY transit agency studies napping

NEW YORK -- The New York Transit Agency is considering whether a staple of kindergarten -- nap time -- is the answer to reducing fatigue among train and bus operators.

"This is not a joke. This is not about building in nap time," Metropolitan Transportation Authority spokesman Tom Kelly said Tuesday. "You are not going to be walking into a crew room and finding everyone sound asleep."

The agency, however, has not ruled out naps on the job, though they would be allowed only during breaks.

The MTA oversees the city's subway and bus systems, Metro-North Railroad, the Long Island Rail Road and numerous bridges and tunnels.

The agency says there is no evidence that fatigue is responsible for a disproportionate number of accidents. Instead, it says the move is part of a larger mandate to improve safety among agency employees.

MTA officials are searching for sleep consultants to review its work practices. The key element of any plan, officials say, is to launch a public awareness campaign among employees that fatigue problems can be reduced only by adequate sleep and consistent work schedules.

It is the possibility of MTA-sanctioned "power napping" during employee breaks and other downtime that has grabbed the attention of the public.

Waiting for a train at a subway station in midtown Manhattan, 43-year-old Mike Rodriguez said: "The jerky way these guys drive trains, skip stops, do whatever they please, you'd think sleeping was already an option."

Clinton proposes $50.5 billion transportation budget

WASHINGTON -- President Clinton's budget for fiscal year 2000 proposes a record $50.5 billion in investments to make travel safer, improve the quality of life for all Americans, expand opportunity, and spur economic growth in the 21st century and the new millennium, Transportation Secretary Rodney E. Slater said Tuesday.

"President Clinton has said that 'how we fare as a nation far into the 21st century depends on what we do as a nation today,'" said Slater. "This is not a time to rest, but a time to build, and this budget makes the investments we need to prepare for the new century. It will make travel safer and more secure, our economy stronger, and our communities more livable."

The proposed $50.5 billion fiscal year 2000 budget is $2.1 billion, or 4.5 percent, more than the current year's $48.4 billion budget. The budget proposal makes key enhancements to the Department's strategic goals: safety, mobility, economic growth and trade, environmental protection, and national security.

President Clinton's top transportation priority continues to be ensuring safety, and the budget has a record $3.4 billion for direct safety programs, 8 percent more than the current year. This includes:

* $1.3 billion for highway safety, including programs to fight drunk driving, increase seat belt and child safety seat use, and get unsafe trucks off the road;

* $1 billion, a 7 percent increase, for aviation safety, to support the Safer Skies initiative's goal of reducing the fatal accident rate by 80 percent within a decade;

* $132 million, a 38 percent increase, for railroad safety, to upgrade safety information systems, provide additional safety staff, and support regulatory and enforcement efforts.

A record $36 billion is planned for infrastructure investment to improve mobility, 72 percent higher than the 1990-93 annual average, including:

* A record $28.4 billion to maintain highways and build new roads and bridges, including $126 million to improve border crossings and trade corridors and $81 million to leverage more than $2 billion in state and private financing for transportation projects;

* A record $6.1 billion for mass transit, including new or expanded rail systems in Dallas, San Diego, Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, Memphis, Salt Lake City, and Newark, New Jersey;

* $1.6 billion to continue improving the nation's airports;

* $571 million for Amtrak trains and stations.

Several initiatives support economic growth and trade, including:

* A record $1.3 billion, 40 percent more than this year, for research and technology development and deployment;

* $150 million to help welfare recipients and lower-income workers get to jobs;

* $185 million for Free Flight Phase One, to help airplanes fly directly to their destinations instead of taking costly, time-consuming roundabout routes.

A record $3.9 billion, 13 percent more than this year, is proposed for programs to protect the environment and to advance the Clinton-Gore Livability Agenda, which supports community-based initiatives to combat congestion and pollution, including:

* A record $1.8 billion for the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement Program, to help localities clean their air;

* $50 million, double this year's level, to help communities develop "smart growth" plans;

* $344 million for Coast Guard marine environmental protection programs.

* $1.5 billion is planned to support national security and combat terrorism, including:

* $566 million for Coast Guard drug interdiction programs;

* $100 million to deploy airport explosives detectors;

* $99 million to keep 47 ships available for emergency sealift capacity.

WALL STREET JOURNAL: Railroad’s leave toxic legacy

LAKE CHARLES, La. -- Wells, pumps and treatment tanks stand along the tracks of this old port city's rail yard. Workers wearing face masks and protective garb are part of a cleanup crew that has dealt with nearly 10,000 gallons of a toxic chemical called perchloroethylene spilled here 16 years ago. But over a thousand gallons more are spreading through the soil of a nearby residential neighborhood.

"When we bought this house, we thought we were doing something positive and helping our children grow," says Lyman Walker, an offshore oil-field worker who lives across the road from the rail yard here. "We didn't know we were putting them more at risk."

Rail yards have become one of the country's most serious pollution problems. For decades, railroads have carried enormous quantities of hazardous chemicals, and rail yards were used to transfer and store them. By the industry's own admission, leaks, spills and even outright dumping were once common.

Now the effects of this neglect are beginning to emerge at dozens of mostly poor communities near the yards. In Lake Charles, traces of the dry-cleaning chemical perchloroethylene have sunk within 30 feet of an underground aquifer that supplies city drinking water. In Elkhart, Ind., toxins from an old rail-car spill have invaded the drinking water of a four-square-mile residential area, forcing the Environmental Protection Agency to declare it a Superfund site. The city of Livingston, Mont., shut down two municipal wells fouled by pollutants from the city's rail yard. And in Boston, Conrail Inc. paid a $2.5 million fine because it allowed oily wastes from its rail yard to dirty a river popular with pleasure boaters.

Rail yards "are among the most contaminated sites in the country," says John DeVillars, regional administrator of the EPA in Boston. "They've just never gotten the same attention that other big dirties got."

So far, railroads have identified more than 300 contaminated rail yards and shop complexes and have spent about $1.5 billion on cleanup. But regulators say the full extent of the harm may never been known, because it has been occurring since around the turn of the century.

Long before environmental stewardship entered the corporate consciousness, railroads treated shipments of most toxic goods with little or no special care. They would bang freight cars together in yards to assemble trains, raising the risk that one car would puncture another. They would store chemicals in rusty drums and leaky tanks, or simply pour unwanted materials on the ground or bury them. As recently as 30 years ago, most railroads -- like most industries -- didn't have specialists inspecting tanks or responding to spills. "We didn't understand the interaction of the chemicals and the environment," says Kenneth Welch, assistant vice president of environmental management for Union Pacific Railroad, a unit of Union Pacific Corp.

By some estimates, there are more than 2,000 rail yards around the country, ranging from a handful of tracks to huge compounds that hold thousands of freight cars. Many of the yards contain vast plants -- for refueling locomotives and overhauling freight cars -- that also spill wastes. Yet the pollution has gone largely undetected for years because the gravel surface of the yards absorbs spills quickly, and the constant train traffic makes inspections difficult.

Some of the most dangerous chemicals -- including butadiene, acrylamide and carbon tetrachloride -- have already invaded residential areas. The perchloroethylene under the Lake Charles neighborhood is a suspected carcinogen. No one knows yet what the health effects are from such contamination , but people are starting to sue railroads for damages. The number of toxic-damage lawsuits outstanding against railroads have increased threefold to 15 in the past several years, says Russ Herman, a New Orleans attorney who heads the rail section of the Trial Lawyers of America.

What's more, environmental officials at the federal and state levels have begun to target rail yards. Pennsylvania state inspectors, for example, have visited more than 20 Conrail facilities in the past couple of years. The worst discovery to date: In Hollidaysburg, Pa., they found more than 3,000 55-gallon drums buried in the ground, containing everything from old paint to cleaning solvents, grease and oil. "It was stunning," says Anthony Martinelli, a hazardous-waste project officer for the state. "It's not the type of thing you even hear of anymore."

How the drums got there is disputed. Current and retired workers say the railroad sprayed shop wastes from a special tank truck on dirt roads throughout the complex. They say they were routinely told to poke holes in the drums and swing them back and forth from a derrick -- spreading the material on the ground. The railroad said it was for "dust suppression," they say. A Conrail spokesman denies that such practices occurred while it controlled the facility, and says the drums must have been buried by a previous railroad. Allegations about dumping "largely predate" Conrail's operation of the facility, he says.

A spokesman for American Premier Underwriters Inc., whose predecessor, Penn Central Corp., operated the facility until 1976, says, "Conrail is simply trying to divert blame by pointing the finger at another company. American Premier has evidence that Conrail was dumping and burying wastes at Hollidaysburg."

Today, railroads insist that they are diligent about pollution safety and have "a clear record of being the safest mode of transport of hazardous material," says Bruno Maestri, assistant vice president of public affairs at Norfolk Southern Corp.

Until the 1970s, rail workers were sloppy not only with materials the rails shipped, but with chemicals they relied on themselves, such as diesel fuel for locomotives. "They put the nozzle in the tank and went inside to have coffee," says John Wadhams, a project coordinator at the Montana Department of Environmental Quality. "When there were pools of diesel fuel on the ground, they knew the locomotive was full."

Many rail yards also were laid out along rivers and lakes, making the consequences of spills that much worse. Several years ago, arsenic acid leaked from a rusty tank-car at a Norfolk Southern yard in Chattanooga, Tenn. Workers grabbed what they could -- in this case, a children's swimming pool -- to contain the poison, but 3,000 gallons escaped. Some even got into the yard's drainage system and eventually into the Tennessee River, near intake pipes for the city's municipal water supply.

The National Transportation Safety Board, which investigated the spill, says Norfolk Southern didn't have an adequate plan to capture and collect leaking cargo. Norfolk Southern claims that Hickson Corp., which produced the arsenic acid, failed to properly maintain the tank car it leased from Union Tank Car Co. In December, a federal jury ordered Hickson and Union Tank Car to reimburse Norfolk Southern for $8.44 million of the money the railroad spent to clean up the spill. An attorney for Hickson says the company plans to challenge the verdict. Union Tank says its share of the verdict was relatively small, and it doesn't plan to appeal.

At the giant rail yard in Elkhart, Ind., EPA officials say a tank car containing carbon tetrachloride collided with another car during switching operations at the yard in 1968. The resulting leak caused about 16,000 gallons of carbon tetrachloride to sink into the ground. Cleaning solvents for removing grease and oil from locomotives and cars also found their way into the soil over the years, investigators say.

The contamination remained hidden until Michael Fitch, a welder and former English teacher, moved into a neighborhood near the yard in 1986 and had a water well drilled. He recalls that the water had a strong plastic taste. "I tried it with whiskey and could taste the water over the whiskey," he says. The local lab that tested the water found high levels of toxic pollution.

EPA investigators blanketed the area, declaring it a federal Superfund site and providing bottled water or household filtration units to residents with contaminated wells. Later, the EPA ordered Conrail and American Premier Underwriters to extend Elkhart city water pipes to more than 1,200 homes near the freight yard.

A Conrail spokesman says Conrail complied immediately with the requirements and continues to work with regulatory authorities and the community. An American Premier Underwriters spokesman says the source of the contaminants is an "open question" but American Premier has "helped to remedy any possible threat to human health and the environment."

The EPA says a glob of carbon tetrachloride still resides below the rail yard and continues to seep into groundwater, the nearby St. Joseph River and residential basements, in the form of vapors.

The health effects of such contamination aren't fully understood. Complicating the matter is the wide variety of materials and exposure levels involved. What's more, diseases related to many of the substances can take years to develop. Nevertheless, some of Mr. Fitch's current and former neighbors have sued the railroad for damages. Among the plaintiffs is an 18-year-old girl who has liver failure and is awaiting a liver transplant; a 28-year-old man who underwent a kidney transplant; and the estate of a railroad worker who died from multiple organ failure in 1995.

Here in Lake Charles, residents hope to avoid health problems. The contamination comes from a leaky tank-car that entered the yard, then owned by Southern Pacific Rail Corp., in 1983. Workers tried to stop the leak but were unsuccessful, and 11,000 gallons of perchloroethylene spilled. Cleanup crews removed soil and water contaminated by the chemical, but more than 1,000 gallons weren't recovered.

Now, residents of Fisherville, a poor community along the tracks, are fearful. Gloria Pickney, who has lived across from the rail yard for 46 years, used to eat watermelons and cantaloupes grown in her garden. She now restricts her plantings to flowers. Mr. Walker, the offshore oil-field worker, says he won't let his four children play outside anymore for fear the ground is contaminated. "It's like we're prisoners in our own house," he says.

Some local residents are suing the railroad, alleging that it botched previous attempts to remove the contamination and asking to be relocated away from the tracks. Union Pacific, which now owns the rail yard, is hoping to solve the problem by continued pumping and treating of the polluted groundwater. Meanwhile, it is drilling new wells to determine if the contamination is spreading.

But that effort is years from completion, and there is new evidence that the contamination has sunk deeper than expected. State investigators say it could eventually reach parts of the Chicot Aquifer, which supplies the city's drinking water.

Union Pacific says it has spent $330 million to clean up polluted sites in the past eight years and has budgeted an additional $240 million to fix others.

The industry says it is trying to prevent new contamination by using safer tank cars with armor plates on their ends and special blunted couplers that reduce the risk of one car puncturing another. Many railroads are recycling materials that once were disposed of in yards and using fewer toxic chemicals in their own operations. And they are leaning on customers to properly load and secure their chemicals shipments to minimize leaks and spills in transit.

Nonetheless, the risk of contamination worries some townsfolk. In Hauser, Idaho, for example, residents oppose plans by Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. to build a locomotive-refueling station along its tracks. The railroad says the complex will be virtually contamination-proof, with double-bottom tanks, double-wall pipes, spill pads and alarms that warn of spills. But some residents aren't buying the railroad's promises, because the site is directly above an aquifer that supplies drinking water to the area.

"Look at what they have done elsewhere," says Lucy Marie Foeller, an opponent of the project. "Why on earth would we trust them in our area?"

Iowa DOT critical of passenger rail plan

AMES, Iowa -- The head of the Iowa Department of Transportation is speaking out against a proposal for passenger rail service between Des Moines and Chicago.

The proposal by Amtrak and the Iowa Interstate Railroad would put two passenger cars on a freight train. D-O-T Chairman Darryl Rensink says the plan is NOT the one sponsored by his agency. He also said the train would be too slow to attract passengers.

Canadian grain weighers keep strike option open

VANCOUVER - Federal grain weighers could in the next few days resume a strike

that crippled Canadian wheat exports last week if the government does not restart contract talks, a union official warned Monday.

A resumption of the strike at the Port of Vancouver, a major shipping point for grain from Canada's Prairie provinces, would ''more than likely'' be expanded to include grain inspectors, said Moe Ritchie of the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) union, which represents the grain weighers.

The volume of ship loading was returning to normal levels Monday, and the backlog of loaded rail cars awaiting unloading in Vancouver had begun to ease, according to railway and Canadian Wheat Board officials.

The 65 Canadian Grain Commission grain weighers returned to work Friday following a three-day strike after British Columbia members of Parliament from the governing Liberal Party agreed to argue the workers' case with officials in Ottawa.

"We're going to give them a few days and if they do the usual thing Liberals do, which is lie and do something different, we'll be back out," Ritchie told Reuters.

The grain weighers in Vancouver and at smaller facilities in Quebec were among several groups of PSAC members in various federal government departments who went on strike to protest a lack of contract talks. The federal workers' last contract expired in 1991.

The Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) and grain companies last week pressed the government to settle the labor dispute, which they said was adding to the pain of Canadian farmers already hurt by low commodity prices. Supervisors weighed grain during the strike, which allowed some limited ship loading.

Canadian Pacific Railway said the 1,400 rail-car backlog on its lines to Vancouver was beginning to ease, and unloading was beginning to approach the 300 cars per day that CP normally handles in Vancouver.

"It's starting to clear. It obviously takes time to ramp up," CP spokesman Ian La Couvee said.

Wheat board spokeswoman Deanna Allen said five ships were being loaded with grain in Vancouver, and two of five ships waiting to be loaded were expected to be berthed either late Monday or early Tuesday.

Allen said the disruption appeared to be more with the rail car unloading than with the loading of ships, but that meant the transfer process was "out of sequence" and could create a short-term loss of capacity.

"I think everyone in the industry is optimistic we will be able to regain it later," Allen said.