September 29, 2014

The Honorable Anthony Foxx

Secretary By electronic filing to
U.S. Department of Transportation Federal eRulemaking Portal
1200 New Jersey Avenue SE
Washington, D.C. 20590



Re: Albany County Comments on NPRM and Request for an Emergency Order
Docket No. PHMSA 2012-0082 (HM-251)
RIN 2137-AE91
NRPM: Enhanced Tank Car Standards and Operational
Controls for High-Hazard Flammable Trains


Dear Secretary Foxx:

I commend the Department for recognizing that the recent, monumental increase in North
American rail transport of crude oil using deficient tank cars and operational controls
corresponds to a drastic increase in terrible accidents and greatly increased risks to life, property
and the environment, and for initiating the series of additional actions taken and proposed by the
Department, the Federal Railroad Administration, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety
Administration to reduce those accidents and their severity.

I believe the proposal for Enhanced Tank Car Standards and Operational Controls (the
NPRM) on which we are commenting today are an important step in strengthening the applicable
standards, but are insufficient to protect the population, property and natural resources of Albany
County.

As County Executive, I have responsibility for assuring that there are sufficient
protections and preparations to handle the risks and consequences of the crude oil expansion in
the County. We have already taken some actions, including:






DANIEL P. MCCOY
COUNTY EXECUTIVE
COUNTY OF ALBANY
OFFICE OF THE EXECUTIVE
112 STATE STREET, ROOM 900
ALBANY, NEW YORK 12207-2021
(518) 447-7040 - FAX (518) 447-5589
WWW.ALBANYCOUNTY.COM
PHILIP F. CALDERONE, ESQ.
DEPUTY COUNTY EXECUTIVE
A County Department of Health order (March, 2014) establishing a County-wide
moratorium on certain operations involving crude oil;

Appointment of experts to an advisory Committee on Crude Oil Safety to help the
County evaluate and participate in resolving the unprecedented issues posed by
transport, handling and storage of massive amounts of crude oil in the County;
and

Preparation of the Countys attached comments on the NRPM.

The Countys responsibilities to protect the Countys people, property and environment,
however, are not matched by the authority or resources to regulate the safe storage, handling and
transportation of crude oil and other hazardous materials in the County. In fact the Countys
authority is confined by federal pre-emption, mostly in favor of the authorities you administer.

Due to your own experience as an urban Mayor, I expect you already understand the
problem of having local responsibilities without adequate authority or resources.

By this letter, I request your personal attention and response to Albany Countys situation.
Specifically, I request that you recognize that the vast expansion of crude oil transport and
handling in Albany County - proximate to an urban core and housing and still subject to
inadequate standards - presents an imminent hazard that is particular and unique to the County
and that compels exercise of your emergency authorities.

We appreciate that the enhanced tank car standards and other improvements under
consideration may, in time, somewhat reduce the risks of accidents and adverse consequences in
Albany County. Yet finalizing, litigating, and fully implementing those improvements will take
at least several years, perhaps longer than the boom in crude oil by rail will last. Meanwhile the
risks faced by the County are real now, and extreme and increasing.

So we ask you to direct the Department and its pertinent agency heads to promptly
develop and issue an emergency order or orders to the railroads and shippers designed to assure
that adequate equipment, operational controls and response capacities are put into place in
Albany County immediately.

The attached comments provide detailed support and suggestions for the use of the
Departments emergency authorities.

Also, the risk of Bakken crude-by-rail would be much lower were the oil stabilized or
conditioned so as to reduce its flammability prior to interstate shipment by rail, as is regularly
done prior to shipment by pipeline. We also ask the Department promptly to evaluate and then
implement new requirements to assure that crude oil is transported by rail in less hazardous
forms.









Given that the City of Albany is the epicenter of the explosive growth of transporting
crude oil by rail; major petroleum storage, rail and port facilities, including the Northeasts
largest freight yard, are located immediately adjacent to downtown Albany and public housing.
And given that all of these facilities, including the shipping operations at the Port of Albany, are
slated for so much growth that Albany is under consideration to become a crude oil pricing hub
1
I
have asked the Mayor of Albany, the Honorable Kathy M. Sheehan to cosign this letter of
concern with me.


We look forward to hearing from you.


Very truly yours,

Daniel P. McCoy Kathy M. Sheehan
Albany County Executive Mayor, City of Albany

Cc: Secretary Foxx by mail
Gov. Cuomo
Sen. Gillibrand
Sen. Schumer
Rep. Tonko
Commissioner Joseph Martens


Attachment:

Comments of Albany County NY in response to NPRM entitled: Hazardous Materials:
Enhanced Tank Car Standards and Operational Controls for High-Hazard Flammable
Trains and Request of Albany County for Exercise of US DOT Emergency Authorities
Regarding Imminent Hazards of Crude Oil Transport in Albany County, September 30,
2014





1
Albany Nears Oil-Hub Status as 100-Car Trains Jam Port, www.bloomberg.com/news , July 24, 2014; Albany on
oils hub list, www.timesunion.com , April 8, 2014.









Comments of Albany County, NY
in response to NPRM entitled:


Hazardous Materials: Enhanced Tank Car Standards and
Operational Controls for High-Hazard Flammable Trains


U.S. Department of Transportation
79 Fed. Reg. 45016 (August 1, 2014)
Docket No. PHMSA 2012-0082 (HM-251)
RIN 2137-AE91


and

Request of Albany County for Exercise of US DOT
Emergency Authorities regarding
Imminent Hazards of
Crude Oil Transport in Albany County

THE CITY OF ALBANY JOINS IN THESE COMMENTS


September 30, 2014
DANIEL P. MCCOY
COUNTY EXECUTIVE
COUNTY OF ALBANY
OFFICE OF THE EXECUTIVE
112 STATE STREET, ROOM 900
ALBANY, NEW YORK 12207-2021
(518) 447-7040 - FAX (518) 447-5589
WWW.ALBANYCOUNTY.COM
PHILIP F. CALDERONE, ESQ.
DEPUTY COUNTY EXECUTIVE
Albany County, NY provides these comments on the referenced NPRM and this request for the exercise of
US DOTs emergency authorities because the County has recently become an epicenter of the explosive growth of
transporting crude oil by rail in tank cars, which US DOT has determined amounts to an imminent hazard to life,
property and the environment.

First, the County provides a brief description of its uniquely concerning circumstances. Second, the County
explains why the proposed tank car standards and other efforts by federal, state and industry actors fail to address the
hazards of crude oil transport in Albany County. Third, the County urges the Department to exercise its emergency
authorities immediately to mitigate those hazards.

A. Albany County and Crude-by-rail

The County comprises 19 municipalities on the western side of the Hudson River, approximately 150 miles
north of New York City. The U.S. Census Bureau estimates the Countys 2013 population as 306,945 and the 2013
population of the City of Albany as 98,424.

The County contains very substantial rail and port facilities for movement of freight. As illustrated on
Figures 1 and 2, the principal components include:

A cross-County main line owned by Canadian-Pacific (CP) running north-south along
the Hudson River and through the downtowns of the Cities of Albany, Cohoes and
Watervliet and several river towns and villages;
A cross-County main line owned by CSX running west-east to the south of Albany;
The CSX Selkirk Yard in Selkirk, about 8 miles south of the City of Albany, the
largest freight car yard in the northeastern United States;
The Global Petroleum and Buckeye Partners petroleum terminals located on the
Hudson River in downtown Albany, with associated rail lines and the Kenwood Yard;
The West Albany Yard in the City of Albany; and
The freight transfer and shipping facilities of the Port of Albany, located on the
Hudson River in downtown Albany, which is the northernmost point on the Hudson
River accessible by bulk petroleum freighters and barges.

These facilities are proximate to many dense residential and commercial zones, particularly in the three
cities and the river towns. For example, the CP freight lines serving the Global Petroleum and Buckeye terminals
immediately abut the Ezra Prentice Homes, a public housing complex in Albany. That housing complex regularly
experiences odors, noise and emissions from the nearby tracks and terminals. Indeed, all of the petroleum terminal
facilities in downtown Albany are proximate to the commercial core of the City.

These rail freight facilities also are proximate to many other sensitive resources. For example in the Town
of Guilderland, the CSX line traverses the watershed and borders one side of the Watervliet Reservoir, the source of
drinking water for Watervliet and Guilderland.

The County shares in the heavy responsibilities of federal, state and local regulators to assure that the
operation of these rail and port facilities does not pose undue risks to the Countys population, property and
resources. The County Executive, the County Health Department, and the County Sheriff all have duties and
authorities to assure that there are adequate controls and standards for the prevention of dangerous accidents within
the County, adequate resources and plans for responses to fires, spills, explosions or other incidents, and adequate
implementation if an incident occurs. For example, pursuant to the Countys Comprehensive Emergency
Management Plan, the County Sheriff has the principal responsibility for directing and coordinating County and
municipal forces when mutual assistance is needed among the federal, state and municipal agencies. Likewise, the
County Health Department has duties and authorities for coordinating any necessary public health responses to an
incident.

With those responsibilities, the County is justifiably alarmed by the dramatic growth of crude oil
transported in the County within dangerously inadequate rail cars under inadequate operating requirements. The
Department and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) are well aware and have documented those
inadequacies, so these comments need not recount the litany of resulting tragedies in the U.S. and Canada. Indeed,
the preamble to the NPRM documents those tragedies as a basis for proposing enhanced rail car standards and
operating procedures.

The purpose of these comments is to focus the Department on how those crude-by-rail inadequacies pose
unique and unacceptable, imminent hazards to the population, property and resources of Albany County.

Specifically, for as long as the Department allows transport of crude oil and ethanol through Albany County
in dangerous rail cars, any accident is highly likely to cause grievous harm. The likely harms of accidents involving
crude oil in inadequate tank cars include fire and damage to life and property and spills to water resources including
drinking water. The risk of accidents has been dramatically compounded by the enormous volumes of crude-by-rail
occurring in the County now and expected to increase.
1
The emergency orders the Department has issued in 2013
and 2014 may lessen the risk of accidents or harm from accidents, but that marginal improvement is dwarfed by the
increase in the number of tank cars coming through the County or being off-loaded in Albany.

Thus in the next section, the County provides comments on the NRPM that generally support the proposed
rules and urge their strengthening and accelerated implementation. But the County insists that the Department also
recognize that crude-by-rail poses an imminent hazard in Albany County right now. As demonstrated in the later
section, the Department should exercise its emergency authorities to impose appropriate controls on crude-by-rail
operations in Albany County immediately.

B. Albany County Comments on NRPM

The County recognizes that the Department has undertaken a comprehensive effort to improve the nations
system and facilities for transporting crude oil, partly in response to the industrys rapid and unexpected growth,
partly in response to the terrible accidents. As itemized in the preamble of the NRPM, in addition to developing and
issuing this NRPM, the Department has issued several emergency orders (classification, securement, notice to State
Emergency Response Commissions (SERCs)), and is proposing additional rule changes (ANPRM re: oil spill
response plans; NPRM re: securement). The Department also has increased its inspection efforts, and the NTSB has
assiduously pressed for improvements in rail car standards and railroad operating procedures.

The County also recognizes and appreciates that the freight rail industry has been working cooperatively
with the Department and others to make rapid improvements, also as itemized in the preamble to the NRPM. The
County acknowledges that CP and CSX have been responsive to the Countys local inquiries, albeit non-committal
about the pace or content of changing their practices and equipment in the County to mitigate the imminent hazard
faced by the County, until and unless the Department forces industry-wide change.

This NRPM materially advances the Departments efforts by proposing:

new standards for new tank cars to be used for carrying high-hazard flammables,
retro-fitting of existing cars to be used for carrying high-hazard flammables,
a schedule for the roll-out of those new and retro-fitted tank cars,
placing enhanced classification, routing and SERC notification requirements into
permanent regulations, and
reducing operating speeds to 50 mph nationwide and to lower levels in some
circumstances.

The County wholly supports the Departments overall efforts and this NPRM in particular, but respectfully requests
the following additional actions.

1. The Department Should Exercise Its Emergency Authorities to Reduce Hazards
Now.

The NPRM is part of the Departments response to the imminent hazard it has recognized
is posed by crude-by-rail. But full implementation of the proposed changes, particularly,
the roll-out of safer tank cars, will not occur for many years. Authorized use of unsafe
DOT-111 tank cars for the most risky cargoes would not fully end until October 1, 2020.
That deadline is very likely to slip due to delays in promulgating and implementing the

1
Albany Nears Oil-Hub Status as 100-Car Trains Jam Port, www.bloomberg.com/news , July 24, 2014; Albany on
oils hub list, www.timesunion.com , April 8, 2014.

final rule, partly due to likely litigation over the final rules. Meanwhile todays hazards
will remain only partly abated, at best.

This delay will have a disproportionate impact on Albany County due to the
concentration of rail facilities in the County that are proximate to population centers and
critical resources. Coupled with the enormous and increasing volume of crude oil
transport in the County, the County and its residents cannot wait until 2020 or even later
to see an end to unsafe practices.

The County therefore asks that the Department immediately take additional steps to
address those hazards that Albany County faces today. The Department has ample
statutory authority and precedents to issue immediate orders that require rail carriers and
shippers to meet enhanced safety requirements where necessary to address particular risks
of harm. Part C of these comments describes that authority also identifies some standards
the Department should impose on rail carriers and shippers operating in Albany County.

2. The Department Should Require Stabilization or Conditioning of Crude-by-Rail
Prior to Interstate Shipment.

The Departments efforts to address the imminent hazards of shipping crude-by-rail assuring correct
classification and better tank cars, etc. are driven by the fact that much of the crude oil being shipped from
the boom areas in North Dakota and elsewhere contains relatively high levels of volatile hydrocarbons, so-
called natural gas liquids (NGLs). The volatility of NGLs in crude oil increases the risks of major fires in
the event of a rail accident.

Many producers use stabilization or conditioning methods to strip out the NGLs before shipping the
product, which is then less flammable and. These practices stem partly from commercial considerations
the NGLs have economic value and partly from pipeline companies operating standards. But
stabilization or conditioning is not required for crude oil shipped by rail.

The Department has ample authority to set standards for transport of hazardous materials and, in particular,
to address the volatility of crude oil shipped by rail. The County recognizes that setting a volatility standard
for crude by rail raises complex issues of capacity and logistics, but the Departments responsibilities to
assure safe transport of hazardous materials mean it is obligated to take on these issues. The producers and
the producing states have no incentives to make the investments to ship a safer product out-of-state. It
therefore is the Departments role and duty is to establish the necessary standards, and to do so
immediately.

3. The Department Should Apply the Proposed Standards to Trains Transporting
Smaller Volumes.

The stated purposes of the NPRM are to lessen the frequency and consequences of train accidents involving
trains transporting flammable liquids. The Department proposes to apply the enhanced standards
specifically to high-hazard flammable trains (HHFTs). The NPRM defines an HHFT as a train set
comprising 20 or more carloads of a Class 3 flammable liquid.

In urbanized areas such as the many areas of Albany County with rail facilities and petroleum terminals,
accidents involving smaller train sets are not significantly less hazardous than accidents involving larger
sets. The Departments proposal would incentivize carriers to create smaller train sets for short distance use
in urban areas near terminals and dense populations, but despite proximity to greater populations, those
would be free of the standards applicable to longer train sets.

In the final rule, the Department should apply the new standards to much smaller train sets, at least when
they are operated proximate to densely occupied urban areas or other sensitive resources such as reservoirs.




4. The Department Should Accelerate Implementation of Positive Train Control

In 2008 Congress directed the Department and rail carriers to implement Positive Train Control (PCT)
systems by the end of 2015, and the Federal Railroad Administration issued implementing regulations in
2010. The objectives of PTC include prevention of accidents involving freight cars such as crude oil tank
cars. There is some resistance from carriers to full implementation by 2015 due to expense and alleged
ineffectiveness.

The County urges the Department to accelerate implementation of PTC and resist any efforts to dilute or
retard its implementation.


5. The Department Should Mandate Reduced Speeds for All Trains Carrying Class 3
Flammable Liquids Proximate to Densely Populated Urban Areas or Sensitive
Resources.

The NPRM proposes a 50 mph, nationwide speed limit for HHFTs. It also seeks comments on several
options for a 40 mph speed limit for HHFTs containing any tank cars not meeting the enhanced standards.
The options would apply the lower limit for such non-compliant HHFTs:

In all areas;
In high threat urban areas; or
In areas (municipalities) with a 100K+ population.

A high threat urban area (HTUA) means an area defined as such by the U.S. Department of Homeland
Security for purposes of planning for terrorist and other major threats against chemical or industrial
facilities in large urban areas. In New York State, only metropolitan New York City and Buffalo are
HTUAs.

The County urges the Department to apply the 40 mph speed limit, or a lower speed limit, much more
broadly.

First, as shown already by some of the recent accidents, tank cars meeting the enhanced CPC-1232
standards still can cause catastrophe. The Department should not tie speed limits to the car standards.
Rather, it should set a nationwide speed limit for all trains carrying Class 3 flammables regardless of
whether the train set meets the enhanced tank car standards, and regardless of whether the train set has
fewer than 20 tank cars.

Second, the Department should set lower speed limits based on the vulnerability of proximate population,
property and resources were an accident to occur. The City of Albany has a 2013 population that is just
under 100K, but has substantial population density immediately adjacent to the rail operations of CP, CSX,
Global, Buckeye and the Port of Albany (see Figure 2). The Cities of Cohoes and Watervliet are smaller,
but their downtowns and the other Hudson River towns downtowns also are proximate to the CP rail line.
The risks to these communities are not less just because their populations are smaller. In fact, due to the
proximity of their populations to rail facilities, they are at much greater risk than many municipalities with
larger populations.

The County recognizes that setting local speed limits in a national rule is complicated, and that the carriers
avoid high speeds in urban areas. But voluntary, unenforceable speed limits can be and often are violated,
including in Albany County. The final rule should:

set appropriate criteria,
require carriers, after obtaining input from the local and state interested parties, to
propose mile-by-mile speed limits meeting the criteria set by the Department,
provide for the Department to review the limits, and
require compliance thereafter with Department-approved limits.


6. The Department Should Require Carriers of Class 3 Flammables to Provide More
Information to Local Responders

The NPRM proposes to require carriers to provide advance notice to SERCs)of any train sets carrying more
than 1,000,000 gallons of Bakken crude oil. That is wholly inadequate.

First, it is local responders who most need the information. In New York as in most states, the SERC is a
coordinating and planning body, not a responder. When an incident occurs in Albany County, it is the
County and its municipalities who must respond. Both in planning and in the event of incidents,
information about the characteristics of different materials under transit, the local response capacities of the
carriers and shippers, and planning for different types of incidents throughout the county need to involve the
local responders most of all. Notice to the SERC is inefficient at best and likely useless. The notice should
be direct.

Second, once any system of advance notice is established, it should apply to all trains carrying Class 3
flammables. The Department should not create incentives for carriers to avoid requirements by segmenting
cargo into smaller train sets. In any event, the 1,000,000 gallon threshold is arbitrary. Much lower volumes
can still have catastrophic results, especially in Albany County.
Third, local responders need additional information that only the carriers possess. For example, rail lines
often have non-public rights of way for access to the tracks for maintenance. Carriers also typically
maintain stores of emergency response equipment and supplies, and contracts with third emergency
responders. The Department should require carriers to provide local responders with information about all
such facilities, and to update that information regularly.

Finally, the NPRM proposes to require the SERC notice only for Bakken crude. But Bakken crude is not
the only risky cargo. Rail transit of crude oil from Canadian tar sands is also growing exponentially.
Indeed, the Global Petroleum terminal in Albany has proposed facility modifications specifically intended
to facilitate handling of Canadian crude. The Canadian crude generally is less volatile than the Bakken
crude, but is more difficult to clean up, particularly if released to water resources such as the Hudson River
or drinking water resources. The Department should require the same notice for all crude-by-rail and other
Class 3 flammables.


7. The Department Should Require Financial Assurance.

The carrier involved in the Lac-Mgantic tragedy is now defunct and incapable of addressing its
consequences. The principal carriers and shippers active in Albany County are more substantial, but still
the County has no assurance under current regulations that the persons responsible for an incident involving
crude-by-rail have the financial capacity to reimburse the County and its municipalities for the costs of
responding to an incident and to handle whatever other damages and response actions arise.

The Department should evaluate financial assurance mechanisms, e.g.:

Insurance;
mandatory contracts with third party responders; and
back-up contracts to achieve redundancy.

The Department should determine which of these or similar mechanisms are necessary and appropriate, and
then require carriers and shippers of Class 3 flammables to provide them.


8. The Department Should Adopt the Most Protective Tank Car Standards and Follow
the NTSBs Recommendations.

The NPRM assesses various potential standards under a variety of criteria, including cost to carriers and
shippers, and risk reduction. The County observes that even a few incidents easily could cause damages
with costs far exceeding the industrys costs of meeting strict standards. Meanwhile the boom in crude oil
production and transport by rail is generating enormous revenues and profits for some even as fuel costs to
consumers have remained stable. The carriers, shippers and consumers can afford safety. The neighbors of
crude-by-rail operations should not bear the heavy risks of unsafe transport while the rest of the country
benefits.

The NTSB and its recommendations put safety first. So should the Department.

9. The Department Should Adopt a Shorter Schedule for Implementation.

The NPRM proposes a schedule for new rail cars to meet the new standards and for existing cars to be
retrofitted, if they will be used in HHRTs. The schedule is based principally on the physical capacity of the
rail car industry to produce the new cars and retrofit the old.

The County acknowledges that major capital projects cannot be accomplished overnight. But the
Department should be very ambitious in setting the pace of these improvements. The industry will respond
if its customers have no choice.


C. Request for Exercise of Emergency Authorities


This NPRM, although welcomed by the County, does too little to protect the County in its unique and
increasingly vulnerable position as a new and growing hub for crude-by-rail transport. The Department has the
authority and responsibility under the Hazardous Materials Transportation Act (HMTA) and the Railroad Safety
Transportation Act (RSTA) to issue emergency orders to abate unsafe conditions such as those currently existing in
the County. The Administration should use these authorities to implement measures to protect the County while this
proposed rule and future rulemaking efforts are promulgated and fully implemented.

Hazardous Materials Transportation Act

Under the HMTA, the Department may issue an emergency order if there is an unsafe condition or practice
causing an imminent hazard. 49 U.S.C. 5121(d)(1). Imminent hazard is defined as the existence of a condition
relating to hazardous material that presents a substantial likelihood that death, severe personal injury, or a substantial
endangerment to health, property, or the environment may occur before the reasonably foreseeable completion date
of a formal proceeding begun to lessen the risk of that death, illness, injury, or endangerment. 49 U.S.C. 5102(5).

The Department has already found that the dangers relating to crude oil rail transport are sufficiently severe
and imminent to justify emergency orders under that authority. Indeed, the Department has issued three such
emergency orders since the tragic accident in Lac-Mgantic last year. Mostly recently, in May 2014 Secretary of
Transportation Foxx found that accidents involving petroleum crude oil shipments originating from the Bakken and
being transported by rail constitute an imminent hazard under 49 U.S.C. 5121(d). Emergency
Restriction/Prohibition Order DOT-OST-2014-0067See Department of Transportation, Emergency Order Providing
for Local Notification of High-Volume Rail Transport of Bakken Crude Oil, 79 F.R. 27363 (May 7, 2014). But this
order and the two earlier emergency orders (in August 2013 regarding unattended trains transporting hazardous
materials and in March 2014 regarding classification of crude oil) are insufficient to protect the County and its
residents from the risks caused by the skyrocketing amount of crude oil arriving to its urban center, particularly
during the long period of time needed to implement the rules proposed in the NRPM.

Railroad Safety Transportation Act

Similar to its authority under the HMTA, the Department also has authority to issue an emergency order
under the RSTA if there is an unsafe condition or practice or a combination of unsafe conditions and practices,
causes an emergency situation involving a hazard of death, personal injury, or significant harm to the environment . .
. 49 U.S.C. 20104(a). The authority under the RSTA reflects two statutory amendments specifically designed to
expand the Departments power to issue emergency orders.

First, in response to an 11th Circuit decision narrowly interpreting the emergency powers, in 1980 Congress
amended the RSTA to authorize the Department to issue emergency orders to address unsafe condition or practice,
or a combination of unsafe conditions and practices instead of just any facility or piece of equipment [that] is in
unsafe condition H.R.Rep. No. 1025 at 12, 1980 U.S.Code Cong. & Ad.News at 3836, Federal Railroad Safety
Authorization Act of 1980, 203, Pub. L. 96-423, 94 Stat. 1811. The amendment was designed to affirm [ ] the
power of the FRA to deal with broad safety problems in any actual emergency, whatever its origin. Id. Congress
again expanded the Administrations authority to issue emergency orders in 2008 by adding significant harm to the
environment as a basis for issuing such an order. Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008, 304, Pub. L. 110-432, 122
Stat. 4848.

The result is what the Department has called its most sweeping enforcement tool, which it use[s] to
address unsafe conditions and practices whether or not they contravene an existing regulatory or statutory
requirement. 49 C.F.R. 209, App. A, at 14.

As the Administrator of the FRA recently noted, the Department has used this tool to respond aggressively
to recent accidents, including issuing an emergency order regarding Metro-North Commuter Railroad in response to
a number of accidents involving speeding trains. Enhancing our Rail Safety: Current Challenges for Passenger and
Freight Rail: Before the Subcomm. On Surface Transportation and Merchant Marine Infrastructure, Safety and
Security, 113th Cong. (2014) (statement of Joseph C. Szabo). In the Emergency Order, the Department ordered
Metro-North to survey its entire system and develop an action plan to prevent excessive train speeds. Department of
Transportation, Emergency Order Under 49 U.S.C. 20104,Order No. 29, Notice No. 1, 78 F.R. 75442 (December
11, 2013).

The County urges the Department to respond as aggressively to the Countys real and growing emergency
caused by the explosion in the volume of crude oil transported into Albany County. Lac-Mgantic is a small town of
6,000 residents with one rail line running through it; the City of Albany has twenty times that population with two
major rail lines, freight yards, bulk petroleum storage and transfer terminals and the Port of Albany all proximate to
downtown and residential areas. Billions of gallons of crude oil speed through the County each year in tank cars that
the Department has determined present an imminent hazard, right next to where its residents live and work, through
the downtown and commercial cores of Albany, Watervliet, Cohoes, and the river towns, and near the many sensitive
natural resources along the Hudson River and beyond. These unsafe conditions and practices will still exist despite
this NPRM and the Administrations three recent emergency orders, and will continue to cause an imminent danger
to life, property, and the environment unless the Administration acts to abate these dangers.

The emergency order applicable to Albany County should have at least the following components:

a. Reduced train speeds for any train conveying Class 3 flammables along any
portion of track proximate to dense urban areas, including Albany, Cohoe and
Watervliet, or to sensitive resources such as the Watervliet Reservoir. Identifying
all such areas will require additional discussion amongst the Department, the
carriers and local authorities. The County will readily participate.

b. Information sharing from the carriers and local shippers to the County and
municipal local responders. The necessary information includes advance notice of
trains conveying Class 3 flammables, information on railroad rights of way for
maintenance and emergency response, and information on response resources.

c. A directive to local shippers that they may receive Class 3 flammables only from
tank cars meeting the existing CPC 1232 standards, or better. One local shipper
has already volunteered to meet that requirement, which should be made
enforceable and applicable to all shippers.

d. Mechanisms for enforcement and for reporting on compliance to the Department
and to local authorities.

The County recognizes that the Department could not issue emergency orders particularized for all local areas across
the United States. Nevertheless the Countys concentration of rail facilities and adjacent populations, and the
explosive growth of the volume of crude-by-rail, make the hazards in Albany County nearly unique. The
Departments special attention to Albany County and the requested action are entirely warranted and necessary.
.