Train Noise:
I have heard from several residents lately about the excessive train
noise between 11 p.m. - 1 a.m. This train noise is most likely coming
from Norfolk Southern's activity on the tracks, not Virginia Paving's.
VA Paving is limited to using their locomotive between 7 a.m. and 6
p.m. However, you should most definitely register your noise complaints
with Steve Mason, Special Assistant to the Mayor, at:
transloading@alexandriava.gov or at steve.mason@alexandriava.gov. And
please feel free to cc: the civic association email address as well:
cscivicassn@gmail.com. The woman in charge of these issues for Norfolk
Southern is listed below. You may also copy her via email at:
gayle.jordan@nscorp.com.
A. Gayle Jordan
General Solicitor - Environmental
Norfolk Southern Corporation
Because rail operations are exempt from local ordinances, zoning, etc.,
there is not much the City can do regarding the movement of trains,
particularly at night when it can be most disturbing. Norfolk Southern
is very aware of the numerous complaints and concerns regarding the
late night noise associated with train movement. However, they do not
have limitations regarding when they can move trains in and out of the
facility.
STB Ruling on Norfolk Southern
Last month the Surface Transportation Board (STB), which regulates
railroads, issued a ruling denying an attempt by Alexandria city staff
to exert their zoning authority over the ethanol transloading facility
behind our homes. Although the Feb. 17 ruling by the Surface
Transportation Board shuts down the city’s attempt to regulate the
facility, the city attorney’s office is still seeking to limit the
number of trucks that can use city streets on a daily basis. That case
is still under consideration by Judge James Cacheris of the United
States District Court in the Eastern District of Virginia.
This was a disappointment for us, obviously, but not completely
unexpected since this regulatory board is in place to essentially
protect the power the railroads have. Please read more about the STB
ruling in the Alexandria Gazette Packet:
http://www.connectionnewspapers.com/article.asp?article=325939&paper=59&cat=104.
Issue Update (Jan. 2, 2008):
The City's legal operation against Norfolk Southern was moving forward as well, with a judge hearing motions for summary judgment on Dec. 18, 2008. A short synopses of this case: After Norfolk Southern opened the ethanol operation on April, the city was ready to restrict the number of trucks, which are loaded with ethanol, allowed to use city streets. The "haul-route permit" was issued on June 4. It restricted the hours of operation from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and the number of daily trucks to 20. But Norfolk Southern stated that not only did they not need to apply for a permit, a permit didn't apply to their situation and a few days later filed a federal lawsuit arguing that the city authority is preempted by federal laws regulating railroads, rail safety and railroad transportation of hazardous materials.
Judge James Cacheris announced that he would be ready to rule on the case in February in a case that will likely have national significance. Please check our website for more information on this case as it becomes available.
The Tucker Elementary PTA continues to be a strong ally in this fight against Norfolk Southern. The PTA has helped organize a letter drive with members, sending more than 120 letters to Senators Webb and Warner, and Rep. Moran about this issue. The PTA will also ramp up efforts in February. If you'd like more information about how to become involved in the Tucker PTA please visit: http://www.acps.k12.va.us/tucker/pta-membership-form.pdf (you don't have to have a Tucker student to be a member).
Independent Review Complete - Report Available for Download
The independent investigators hired by the city to complete a review of the Norfolk Southern situation have completed their report and presented it to the City Council. You may download a copy of the report here: http://alexandriava.gov/uploadedFiles/special/transloading/TransloadingIndependentReviewDec2008.pdf.
Latest Press on Norfolk Southern
New! Alexandria Gazette Packet: Judge Hears Case on Ethanol-Loading Station: Norfolk Southern challenges a city-issued permit in federal court - December 22, 2008
New! Alexandria Gazette Packet: Missed Opportunities - December 17, 2008
Washington Post: Ethanol's Use Outstrips Plans to Deal With Its Risks - October 26, 2008
Bloomberg: Norfolk Southern Fights VA City on Ethanol Site - September 5, 2008
Alexandria Gazette Packet: Cover-Up at City Hall? - September 4, 2008
WCVB: Ethanol Loading Fuels Concerns - August 26, 2008
Civic Association Board of Directors Asks Mayor Euille for Independent Investigation
On Tuesday, October 28, the Alexandria City Council approved Cameron Station's request for an independent investigation into the circumstances and city staff actions surrounding the Norfolk Southern ethanol transloading facility.
On
Monday, August 11, the civic association board presented Mayor Bill
Euille a letter requesting an independent investigation concerning the
city staff's response to the Norfolk Southern facility on the West End.
The board is hopeful the Mayor and City Council will recognize the
importance of the investigation to restore trust of residents of the
West End, specifically Cameron Station, in the city staff and city
government as a whole. Download the letter and attachments.
Update: On Thursday, August 28 the Civic Association board sent a follow-up letter to the Mayor and members of Council to address questions regarding the request for an independent investigation. Download the letter.
Emergency Preparedness Plan
The following information was sent from Steve Mason, special assistant to Alexandria City Manager Jim Hartmann:
The link below will take you to the latest version of the Cameron Station and Summers Grove emergency plans. Please share the link/plans with all who share an interest. I believe that you will see that both plans include improved personalization, but that neither plan will provide exact/specific information on what to do for a given event/scenario. The City has a Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan (CEMP) that we use as a guideline when we create scenarios for our emergency exercises. The Cameron Station and Summers Grove plans are guidelines, and no one should view these as the panacea in the event of an emergency. All of us must exercise extreme flexibility in our approach(es) to an emergency situation.
http://www.alexandriava.gov/downloads/
Please take a look at the Cameron Station plans. If you have questions, please contact Steve Mason: steve.mason@alexandriava.gov
and copy the Civic Association at: cscivicassn@cs.com.
Surface Transportation Board Hearing - Tuesday, July 22
The Civic Association president submitted testimony to the Surface Transportation Board for it's hearing on Tuesday, July 22. Download testimony from:
Ingrid Sanden, Civic Association President
Rep. Jim Moran (D-VA)
Del Pepper, Vice Mayor, City of Alexandria
Norfolk Southern Protest - Monday, June 23 at 4:30
To
focus public and press attention on the Norfolk Southern Transloading
Operation located adjacent to Tucker School, Summers Grove and Cameron
Station, the Capital Beltway and Metro, the
Cameron Station Civic Association is organizing a protest against
Norfolk Southern in Alexandria, VA. This protest will take place on
Monday, June 23th, 2008 from 4:30 PM until 6:30 PM in front of the
Norfolk Southern site on Metro Road (the address is 1000 Van Dorn);
adjacent to Van Dorn Metro Station. WE NEED YOUR HELP. Please
bring your own sign or noise maker. Invite other concerned residents of
Alexandria and Northern Virginia. This could happen in any
neighborhood, at any time - just as it did in Alexandria. See a map of the protest site.
From
Cameron Station, go South on Van Dorn Street and take the right exit
toward the Van Dorn Metro stop. You will see the entrance to Norfolk
Southern's facility on the left-hand side before entering the Metro
parking lot.
New! June 9 Community Meeting Summary
We
just want to summarize the community meeting on the Norfolk Southern
ethanol transloading facility that we held on June 9 at Tucker School.
But first off, we appreciate all who were able to attend from Cameron
Station and from throughout the City. We had close to 140 attendees,
including the Mayor and City Council, the City Attorney, the City
Manager and other City staff.
We also appreciate the "bullet
points" that Art Impastato, one of our Board members, developed of the
meeting. They are included in the numbered sections. The general
observations are based on e-mail, telephone and face-to-face comments
we received from our residents and friends. We thank those who
commented. While there was some variation in expressed views, I think
it fair to say that there was some level of dissatisfaction expressed
by the majority of commentors regarding the City's presentations and
comments.
If you would like to comment (or comment further), we would love to hear from you: cscivicassn@cs.com
General
Comments: Most people who commented were disappointed that the City was
not more specific concerning matters of public safety and that key
concerns had not been addressed adequately. They expected more
concrete details, especially with the inordinate amount of time the
Fire Chief took. They thought some of the City presentations were too
defensive and spent too much time on material that most people had some
knowledge of, or was of marginal interest and benefit. They expected
more skillful presentations and greater clarity. Most presenters did
not use time well. Several speakers lost track of the focus of the
meeting and were more concerned about following their own agendas. The
audience left with a feeling of lack of confidence and trust.
Art's bullet points are listed in the order in which they were made at the meeting.
1.
While the transmodal facility can only handle 20 rail cars, people in
the audience noted recently there were 50 cars on the tracks and the
Fire Chief, Adam Thiel, confirmed there is no limit as to how many rail
cars can be parked on the tracks, that he does not know what they
contain and that the City "has no control over what is parked at the
facility."
2. The Fire Chief admitted that the response times
from the ethanol fighting truck at Wheeler Avenue where the foam truck
is stored "are a challenge for us" and it would take 7 to 8 minutes to
respond without congestion.
3. The Fire Chief admitted that, as
recently occurred in Indiana, if the ethanol tanks were stuck by
lightning, it would cause a "disaster" that would exceed the capacity
of the City to respond.
4. The Fire Chief said his department
will be doing evacuation and preparedness exercises in the near future
that will involve the community.
5. Mayor Euille said that he
still feels that the current location is not the right location for
such a facility and wants Norfolk Southern ("NS") to "cease and desist
immediately."
6. Mayor Euille spoke with Governor Kaine on this
issue on 5/28/08 and will be meeting next week with Congressman Moran
and Senators Webb and Warner to discuss a "legislative solution."
7.
Mayor Euille said the City gave NS a restrictive trucking permit on
6/3/08 from hauling the ethanol from the facility which will be the
topic of a City Council public hearing on 6/14/08. [Note: although the
City issued the permit, NS refused to sign it and maintains they are
subject only to Federal regulation and the City has no regulatory
control over them.]
8. The Mayor said City Council will be
meeting in executive session on 6/10/08 to discuss the ethanol facility
and consider the filing of a "declaratory petition" seeking a ruling
that the City is not preempted by federal law to regulate the facility.
9. City Manager Jim Hartmann said he's met with Homeland Security to discus this.
10.
City Attorney Ignacio Pessoa said that they will pursue the possibility
(unclear if by lawsuit or by discussion) of going after NS for federal
safety issues since he believes NS is not in compliance with federal
safety regulations.
11. Pessoa said the recent changes to the
law on transportation of solid waste are not helpful in this situation
since the City would still be preempted from taking action.
12. Euille said he'd ask Hartmann to meet with WMATA (i.e,.Metro) and VDOT (Virginia Department of Transportation) on this.
13.
Euille said he will not put a moratorium on Landmark/Van Dorm or West
Eisenhower plans until the City decides on the issue of what course it
wants to take on industrial uses in the West End, but said that
ultimately was for City Council to decide.
14. The Fire Chief said his department inspected the facility and it meets fire code regulations.
15.
David Lawson Vice President of NS admitted that he expects, due to the
demand for ethanol, for the facility to "ramp up" in the future.
{Note: NS can operate the facility 24/7.]
16. The Fire Chief,
after a discussion of the proximity of Tucker Elementary, admitted that
this is "an absolutely terrible site" for such a facility.
17.
Lawson, in response to a question, said it was unlikely NS would change
its hours of operation so they ran other than during rush hour and
other peak traffic times due to difficulty in getting ethanol to the
two "tank farms" located in Springfield and in Fairfax City. Lawson
also said NS could not build a transloading facility near the
Springfield tank farm since the land and tracks near it are owned by
CSX.
18. The Fire Chief said he has done a homeland security
assessment on the facility and people noted the fence around the
facility is a joke, with two recent incidents occurring (the specifics
of the incidents were not mentioned by Zina Raye of Summers Grove)
19.
The Fire Chief said that NS did not notify Metro of this facility nor
was VRE (Virginia Railway Express, an entity of VDOT).
20.
Lawson said NS "looked at" the fact the facility was located near Metro
but their primary considerations for location were it's on land zoned
as industrial, they own the land, and proximity to the two tank farms.
21. Pessoa noted the City cannot take the land by eminent domain; that action would have to be done by the Feds.
22.
The Fire Chief noted that none of the Superfund requirements like the
Emergency Right to Know Act and Clean Air Act apply to this facility
since it is not a "fixed facility."
The City has posted an information section of its version of the Norfolk Southern situation on its website: www.alexandriava.gov.
Other supporting documents include:
1) A timeline
outlined by Norfolk Southern as to the events and meetings held with
the city staff beginning in June 2006. (prepared June 6, 2008)
2) The city's timeline, beginning in June 2006. (prepared June 16, 2008)
Issue Background (from May 27, 2007):
In mid-April, the Norfolk Southern Corporation began operation of an ethanol
trans-loading station in the West End of Alexandria. (Ethanol, which is
mixed in various proportions with gasoline as an automotive fuel, is a
flammable liquid that requires a special type of fire-fighting foam to
extinguish.) The tanker cars pull up on the railroad tracks behind
Cameron Station and Tucker Elementary and, as many of you have noticed,
sit for days or weeks on end. The site is used for transferring liquid
ethanol from rail cars into tanker trucks for delivery to gasoline tank
farms in Springfield and in Fairfax City.
Alexandria's
City Manager, Jim Hartmann, wrote a memo dated May 15 (one month after
operations started) stating that the city "negotiated" an accommodation
with Norfolk Southern on behalf of the City. The city staff didn't
inform some, perhaps all, city council members - and none of the
residents in the area - of these developments before or after this
agreement was reached. At this time, the civic association board
believes that the only reason this issue came to light is because after
a few residents inquired about the numerous tanker cars on the tracks
during our May 5 meeting, I sent an email to city council members, and
after several days with no response, I was eventually sent the May 15
memo by Mr. Hartmann. The memo can be found on line at: http://www.cameronstationcivicassociation.org/uploads/norfolksouthern.pdf
The
problem is, there is a new federal regulation from the Department of
Transportation's Surface Transportation Board (STB) that prohibits the
city from regulating such a facility. However, the regulation was put
in place after Norfolk Southern had decided to build this facility in
Alexandria.
While Norfolk Southern may be within its legal
rights to build such a transfer station, there is much doubt among some
of us on the civic association board whether or not the Mayor, City
Council members, or city staff are looking out for the public good of
Alexandrians. Were the Council members uninformed, and if so, why not?
Was city staff given the responsibility of investigating and
"negotiating" the issues of increased truck traffic, safety, public
nuisance, and environmental impact with no input from the people who
actually live in the area?
The Virginia Paving Liaison
Committee, appointed by the Mayor a year ago to review heavy industrial
uses in the West End, was not informed of this action either.
To
add insult to injury, I was informed May 15 from the
City Manager's office that we should await a "community meeting" with
the Norfolk Southern public relations department to discuss this vital
issue. Apparently City staff, and perhaps Council, are willing to
abrogate its responsibilities for citizen involvement to private
interests.
I apologize for not informing you, the residents of
Cameron Station, until now (May 27). Many of us on the board have been
researching this issue, piecing together a time line, and talking to
city council members to try to put this story together and determine
what we can do. At this point, the board is developing a strategy and
will pursue our Congressional representatives this week. If you are so
inclined, please send emails to the following people to let them know
your views on this issue:
Mayor Euille: alexvamayor@aol.com
City Manager Jim Hartmann: jim.hartmann@alexandriava.gov
Senator Jim Webb: http://webb.senate.gov/contact/ (online email form)
Senator John Warner:
http://warner.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Contact.ContactForm
(on line email form)
Congressman Jim Moran: http://moran.house.gov/zipauth.shtml (on line
email form)
Please be assured the civic association leadership will continue to work hard on this issue.
Ingrid Sanden, President