Activists and CSX concerned about derailed oil trains

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Six train cars that derailed on a Philadelphia bridge this week carried the same type of flammable crude that exploded in a small Canadian town, killing 47 people.

Although no oil spilled and no one was hurt, the CSX derailment Monday worried environmental activists, especially because it occurred in a densely-populated city. The trains derailed over the Schuylkill River, near the University of Pennsylvania, a highway and three hospitals.

“The cars are still there, twisted on the tracks,” said Iris Marie Bloom, director of the environmental group Protecting Our Waters. “As long as there’s toxic crude oil hanging over the Schuylkill River on a twisted bridge ... there’s still danger.”

Environmentalists are not the only ones concerned after about a half-dozen oil train derailments in the past two years, several involving crude from the Bakken Shale in North Dakota, which they believe is proving especially combustible.

CSX — which transports Bakken crude from Chicago to several Mid-Atlantic refineries, including one in Philadelphia — is also studying the problem.