Emergency training vital to Brewster County

The county judge and emergency management coordinator didn’t take a train trip, but both say they learned a lot about trains, their cargo and the hazards that ride the rails through Brewster County and Alpine.

Judge Val Beard and Tom Santry, who attended last weekend’s HAZMAT training provided by Union Pacific, praised the one-day short course that drew 39 first responders from eight area agencies and governmental bodies and said they were surprised by what they learned.

“It was pointed out that any railroad is a common carrier,” Beard said at Monday’s Commissioners Court meeting, “and Union Pacific has no choice as to what to accept” as cargo — even hazardous materials.

Santry added, “All trains that go through here have dangerous material on board.”

The UP training was planned after two recent close calls involving rail cars carrying either hazardous or potentially dangerous materials. The first was a derailment in February that spilled a substance similar to mineral oil; however, until UP crews could arrive in Alpine from El Paso, no one knew what had spilled near dozens of homes and Alpine Middle School, so a wide area was evacuated. Then, in late August, three tank cars carrying argon gas began leaking as the train was parked inside the Alpine city limits. Union Pacific officials left local emergency responders dangling for hours before agreeing to move the cars out of town.

In the wake of the incidents and bad publicity, both Union Pacific and Air Liquide Co. — whose tank cars leaked — decided to hold the HAZMAT class.

Santry said he learned that the most dangerous part of a train is the engine, and many trains that come through Brewster County and Alpine have multiple engines.

“It’s carrying 8,000 gallons of diesel fuel, it has batteries full of sulfuric acid, and if you have to turn off the engine, you run the risk of igniting a spark,” he said. “It’s surprising to me how dangerous these engines are. Some trains have engines at both ends, so if you have a rear-end collision with one…”

Santry added that he was told he will be “vetted” by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security so he can have access to a train’s cargo list, or manifest, in the event of an emergency.

Departing from the train issue, commissioners plowed through a full agenda, including opening sealed bids for a jail inmate telephone system. A representative of one bidder touted his company’s gear, which includes call monitoring by a jail administrator, call-blocking and ways inmates may pay for calls. Commissioners, County Treasurer Carol Ofenstein and Sheriff Ronny Dodson were to study the proposals before the court could select a provider.

In other action: