Sanitizing Toxic Trains

[zardoz]

An article from the (admittedly slightly politically left) "Center For American Progress":

HOMELAND SECURITY
Sanitizing Toxic Trains

When Iraqi insurgents recently blew up trucks carrying chlorine -- sickening at least 356 people in Baghdad -- the attacks conjured up frightening images of chemical warfare transported by terrorists to American shores. "Chlorine gas attacks the eyes and lungs within seconds, causing difficulty in breathing and skin irritation in low-level exposure. Inhaled at extremely high levels, it dissolves in the lungs to form hydrochloric acid that burns lung tissue, essentially drowning a person as liquid floods the lungs." Every year, massive railcars traverse 300,000 miles of freight railways, carrying highly toxic chlorine gas through almost all major American towns and cities. A U.S. Homeland Security scenario drafted in 2004 estimated a large chlorine tank explosion on U.S. soil could lead to 17,500 deaths, 10,000 severe injuries, and 100,000 hospitalizations. In a new report entitled "Toxic Trains and the Terrorist Threat," the Center for American Progress surveyed water utilities that still receive chlorine gas by rail and utilities that have eliminated chlorine railcars by switching to a less hazardous disinfectant. The analysis found that since 1999, some 25 water facilities that formerly received chlorine gas by rail have switched to safer and more secure water treatment options, such as liquid bleach or ultraviolet light. This conversion to safer alternatives for water treatment is the only way to protect neighborhoods and communities and get unnecessary toxic cargoes off the tracks. For the price of a single day's expenditure on the war in Iraq, the United States could cover construction costs of converting the remaining water facilities off chlorine gas railcars....

the article continues:

...Since 1999, some 25 water utilities that formerly received chlorine gas by rail have switched to safer and more secure water treatment options, such as liquid bleach or ultraviolet light. These alternative treatment options eliminate the danger of a catastrophic toxic gas cloud. As a result, more than 26 million Americans who live near these facilities are safer and more secure. Of facilities that still receive rail shipments of chlorine gas, at least six drinking water and wastewater plants have definite plans to convert from chlorine gas to a more secure disinfectant. Cost estimates provided by 20 water facilities indicate that conversations at these facilities would cost no more than $1.50 per person each year. Put another way, a single day's expenditure in Iraq could wean these 20 facilities off chlorine gas and help reduce the potential harm from a terrorist attack.

(I was going to provide a link to the article, but the site is down; I will post the link later)

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At least the article did not portray the railroads as the bad guys; it merely reported what is being done to reduce the risks of transporting the chemical.

[beaulieu]

Note that Liquid Bleach contains a lot of Chlorine. Also most of the facilities using alternatives are smaller utilities. And finally the militants in Iraq aren't blowing up shipments of Chlorine gas, they are manufacturing, or stealing it to make their bombs. Since they have started using Chlorine bombs you would think that sources of Chlorine in Iraq would be much more tightly guarded than anything possible in the US, i.e. soldiers armed and authorized to shoot to kill.