The James River: A Moving Pipeline

The path of James River through Virginia carries millions of gallons of life-sustaining nourishment daily. But are you aware that it is also a winding course for exploding toxic substances?

A now renowned region of North Dakota recognized by oil prospectors to hold a geologic formation called the "Bakken play" might conjure images of the days of the Wild West. Hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking" -- a controversial method of extracting fossil fuels deep beneath the earth's surface -- is creating boom towns in this region. An influx of fracking and oil production workers has transformed sleepy, rural Dakota villages into booming industrialized towns overnight. The industry's goal: Get the oil out of the ground...and make it snappy. 
But then what? There is not endless storage capability for oil, so the industry is anxious to transport it to refineries quickly. Adequate pipeline infrastructure to meet this desire does not exist in the Bakken region, though, so the oil industry has taken to placing this crude oil into 1.5-mile long trains and shipping it across the continent daily. Federal regulations allow the industry to use antiquated shipping cars that have been documented for decades as being likely to spill and rupture during a derailment.

So what does oil from North Dakota have to do with the health & safety of James River, the protection of drinking water for many thousands of Virginians, and your community? And why has James River Association -- whose mission is to protect a river -- become so involved in this rail-based issue?
Please visit www.RiverAtRisk.org now to ensure solutions that benefit Virginians rather than the continuation of avoidable risks to our communities and irreplaceable water resources.

Unit trains carrying their hazardous and volatile cargo travel along a route that parallels, crosses and hovers over Virginia's James River for hundreds of miles over infrastructure that is minimally and self-inspected. Each month, as much as 15 million gallons or more of this highly toxic and explosive Bakken crude travels via rail line from West Virginia across the Commonwealth en route to Yorktown, Virginia. Bakken crude is not what you might typically visualize when you hear the term "crude oil". It is in fact a "light, sweet" crude oil that behaves much more like gasoline in its volatility, or likelihood to cause a dangerous explosion. Considering these similarities, I find it helpful to imagine the tankers to be loaded with millions of gallons of gasoline in forecasting possible derailment scenarios.

After reaching Yorktown, train tanker contents are offloaded onto tanker ships at a recently retrofitted transfer facility, and finally sent to refineries along the east coast. Lynchburg received national press last year for a derailment and alarming accounts of the April 30 derailment, James River oil spill and breathtaking explosion. Lynchburg, however, is by no means the only population center and resource along the oil-by-rail route. During its tour de Virginia, rail tankers travel through the heart of the towns of Covington and Clifton Forge -- along the James headwaters of Dunlap Creek and Jackson River. Upon the rail confluence with James River at its origin in Iron Gate, trains of Bakken crude make their winding, narrow path through Botetourt County, including the historic river towns of Eagle Rock, Buchanan, Natural Bridge Station and Glasgow. From the beautiful Allegheny Highlands, tankers of oil flow through the fabled Blue Ridge in full view of the James Face Wilderness Area and our National Forest lands -- through the most biologically diverse river gorge in the eastern United States. After straddling the Bedford-Amherst County line and passing through the Big Island industrial town and industrial facility, the trains roll into Lynchburg City to begin their snaking trek across the Piedmont of Central Virginia. Before approaching the fall line, Virginians can encounter black tankers of oil rolling through Galts Mill, Gladstone, Howardsville, Scottsville, the fabled Seven Islands, Bremo Power Plant, Goochland and Powhatan Counties, Richmond's James River Park System and Maymont Park. 

Bakken oil will cross innumerable creeks and tributaries on historic bridges, encountering countless public parklands, trails, schools, government buildings, hunting and fishing grounds and traversing hundreds of miles of private farmland, forest, neighborhoods, industries and businesses. If you look up while in Richmond City you may observe oil trains overhead from several vantage points, including Belle Isle, Texas Beach, Brown's Island, the Riverfront Canal Walk, Dock Street, the Virginia Capital Trail and Rocketts Landing. You can easily identify oil tankers by the bright red placards with the number "1267" aside each tanker.  Eastbound, loaded -- headed west, going back for more.

The February  2015 spill damaging the Kanawha River in West Virginia resulted in no fatalities and only a single injury. Thousands of citizens were evacuated and displaced, and two separate drinking water resources were threatened. One home was burnt to its foundation. Similarities between the West Virginia derailment to the Lynchburg derailment on April 30, 2014 include: Identical model of rail car (the "safer" CPC-1232), identical cargo (Bakken crude oil), identical rail carrier (CSX) and identical rail line (destined for Yorktown).

The Lynchburg events were not a fluke or a simple case of "bad luck". Derailments of these shipments have become routine occurrences in North America since 2013. Federal estimates forecast derailments to become exponentially more deadly, costly and frequent without intervention. As Virginians, we have the guaranteed right to waterways free of impairment. Your right to drinkable, swimmable and fishable water is unnecessarily jeopardized each time these unsafe trains are permitted to carry their cargo over and along our river.

If you share in our concern about Virginia's natural legacy and the river that will be left to our children, then please lend a voice to your voiceless river. Through JRA's Our River At Risk campaign, you will be provided with specific opportunities on how you can participate in securing a healthy James River for you, your family, your community and your future. Protections are possible and available but only with your involvement. 

Please visit www.RiverAtRisk.org now to ensure solutions that benefit Virginians rather than the continuation of avoidable risks to our communities and irreplaceable water resources.