The Observation Deck

Making news today was that all of the water that cannot be cleaned is headed to Texas to be dumped.





The fact remains, it has to be put somewhere.


Meanwhile nothing slows Norfolk Southern, speeding by then end of one of the cars that blew up the first night.

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It surprises me a little that no people who live near the tracks have joined the discussion.

Three caveats: I've moved to Westlake where I am not far from the same train line; I don't know or need to know where Mark lives; I haven't been reading the Lakewood Facebook groups although I've seen some chatter on Nextdoor.

It's a great thing, and a credit to Jim O'Bryan, that we have a place like this to discuss these kind of issues civilly and intelligently. Have a discussion like this in Westlake? Ha. Where?

I recognize the need to uncover and publicize the actual cause, but I don't care that much as it could have been caused by many things.

I just heard on the news that safer tanker cars can't be implemented until 2029.

Texas Molecular

Here is a link to a company that may be handling the aqueous water waste that Jim O'Bryan notes in his recently posted photo:

https://www.texasmolecular.com/

This name surfaced in reporting from ABC 13 in Houston.

You can also search "Texas Commission on Environmental Quality" or "TCEQ" for additional information.

Meghan George

Hi Jim,

Per our conversation, I wanted to respond to your inquiry on what the city is doing or has done to prepare for such a disaster. The reporting that continues to come out of this accident is alarming and something that we are working through here in the City of Lakewood. We have been in communication with Ohio EPA on this matter as it relates to the City of Lakewood, and will continue to monitor the situation. The possibilities of a train derailment with a hazardous materials release in Lakewood has been greatly reduced over the years but more needs to be done. The Federal government needs to create policy that provides additional oversight over the railroads so that accidents like the one that happened in East Palestine do not happen in the future. The antiquated brake system on this train, which is commonly used by the railroads, was designed by Westinghouse going back to 1869. Former top Federal Railroad officials state that the accident could have been lessened if the train had Electronically Controlled Pneumatic (ECP) brakes. A requirement to ensure that trains carrying hazardous materials to have these ECP brakes was in place during the Obama administration but was rescinded in 2017. As a member of the United States Conference of Mayors we will continue to advocate for enhanced safety regulations on the railroad. I have attached a recent communication from our group and policy statements. Let me know if you have questions on this.

In terms of our preparedness, the City of Lakewood’s Department of Public Safety (Police, Fire and Building) prepare for multiple emergencies on a regular basis. The Fire Department operates under Standard Operating Guidelines that we are constantly reviewing and performing scenario based training exercises. Prior to the derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, Lakewood Fire Department hosted a table top exercises with multiple Government agencies from the Cuyahoga County area. The exercise was based on an incident very similar to the situation in East Palestine, Ohio. It was a train derailment in the middle of Lakewood.

The City will handle a derailment with a release of toxic chemicals based on a number of factors, including but not limited to:

(Chemicals involved, weather conditions, physical state of the chemical, and following the standard operating guidelines listed in the Department of Transportation’s ERG. (Emergency Response Guidebook) See below.

Emergency Response Guidebook (ERG)
http://phmsa.dot.gov

Meghan F. George
Mayor, City of Lakewood, Ohio

12650 Detroit Avenue
Lakewood, Ohio 44107
Phone: 216-529-6600
Email: mayor@lakewoodoh.net
Website: www.lakewoodoh.gov

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Good to know. Why not ask the editor of the Observer's Westlake/Bay Village publication to do the same?

From NBC NEWS...

‘Déjà vu’: A train derailment 40 years ago holds clues for East Palestine’s future
by Evan Bush
Sat, February 25, 2023 at 9:00 AM EST·7 min read

The sizzling wreckage of a derailed train. Toxic smoke pouring over a small town. Fearful residents fleeing their homes. The images of East Palestine, Ohio, could only be described as “déjà vu” for Bruce Bennett, a retired judge in Louisiana.

In darkness on the morning of Sept. 28, 1982, a train jumped its tracks and sent more than 30 tanker cars filled with hazardous chemicals or fuel crashing near a commercial strip of Livingston, Louisiana, about 20 miles east of Baton Rouge. Chemical leaks and smoke plagued the area for days.

“The cars were sitting there burning and smoldering, five, six days after the derailment,” Bennett said. “One of the cars just blew up. The damn thing went 600 feet in the air.”

Read the whole story here...
https://www.yahoo.com/now/d-j-vu-train- ... 00675.html

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The railroads are skimping on crews and maintenance.
It is reported that profits had been very high.
Those profits had been spent on stock buy backs.
And lobbying.
Rather than invested in hiring more crews,
And doing more maintenance.

https://podbay.fm/p/crime-pays-but-bota ... 1677256239

I had not realized part of the caboose crews job was to look at the forward cars as the train rounded curves. That way they could see if any of the cars had burning wheels or axles.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QMU--_Rhm-0

How common is the problem of burning wheels or axles?

Dan Alaimo wrote:How common is the problem of burning wheels or axles?

Well you tell me Dan, it would seem that the railroads have spent millions on hotboxes to monitor them.

I would say, it is a big problem, but a semi-manageable one.

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So, while the bean counters are running the railroad and skeleton crews are driving the trains, we are left to watch out for ourselves.

Dan Alaimo wrote:So, while the bean counters are running the railroad and skeleton crews are driving the trains, we are left to watch out for ourselves.

Dan

We are in the early days of the Rollerball era. Where corporations become the government and every aspect of life.

Read Rollerball, it will be very unsettling.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/234910673478?h ... 36b1c46a46

It is always about the bottom line. Always, even when they are doing something nice.

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Jim O'Bryan wrote:

Dan Alaimo wrote:So, while the bean counters are running the railroad and skeleton crews are driving the trains, we are left to watch out for ourselves.

Dan, we are in the early days of the Rollerball era. Where corporations become the government and every aspect of life. Read Rollerball, it will be very unsettling. https://www.ebay.com/itm/234910673478?h ... 36b1c46a46 It is always about the bottom line. Always, even when they are doing something nice.

Rollerball!
Or, if dystopian Schwarzenegger is more your jam, there is the movie "Running Man" (with Richard Dawson!) that offers a perhaps similar made-for-tv consumption entertainment thing.

Milton Friedman, that libertarian economist of destruction, wrote ca. 1970 that the only responsibility of the corporation is to maximize profits, its only responsibility is to the shareholder. Notably excluding corporate responsibility to labor/worker, or to community, or I suppose, to country. Hey, greed is good. Consider the ills of mid- and end-stage corporate capitalism that seems only to be accelerating since 1970, in plain sight.

BTW, mildly off-topic, libertarian Friedman also pushed for charter schools as the application of a market of school choice... which fractures too many communities and underfunds public schools, leaves stranded assets, diverts education funding to oft-insider private profit with little oversight, and drives a new segregation.

But hey, according to the libertarian Friedman and far too many, "the market" will take care of corporate misdeeds, and East Palestine and its people, and Norfolk Southern, and regulatory capture, and rural communities and inner cities, and public education, and **Lakewood Hospital... and anything that can be stripped for assets in the pursuit of and transfer to shareholder private profit. The Market will fix it... the Market will fix East Palestine and the possibility of generational cancer clusters. The Market will make it right. Right?

Norfolk Southern will pay some huge $$$ fine (gasp!) as a measure of responsibility, little of that $$$ will reach East Palestine, there will be no accountability let alone consequence of jail, the TV cameras will move on, and East Palestine will be a sad footnote in a too-soon next chapter. The Market will make it right.

Embrace your overlords.

I saw a report about the 1982 train derailment in Bay Village - same train line as Lakewood. The derailed train just missed a gas station fuel pump. Goes to show it wouldn't take much to create a major catastrophe because of the tanker contents.