Times Union  |  Jordan Carleo-Evangelist  |  Sunday, June 29, 2014 (Updated 11:52 pm)

County officials furious that they weren't notified

An estimated 100 gallons of oil that spilled from a rail car at a transfer facility at the Port of Albany Sunday posed no danger to nearby residents or the environment, a port official said.

But county officials, who have imposed a moratorium on the growth of the oil infrastructure at the port amid safety concerns, said they were furious that they weren't notified of the incident — no matter how small.

The oil spilled from a rail car vent in a yard at the Global Partners terminal, where oil is transferred from inbound rail cars to tankers that send it down the Hudson River, port Manager Richard Hendrick said.

Ed Greenberg, a spokesman for the Canadian Pacific railroad, said the incident did not involve a moving train and that only a small amount — five gallons or less — spilled onto the railroad's property.

The Global terminal has been the center of the local debate, fueled by the much larger national one, over the safety of the increasing amount of rail-borne oil moving through the port, much of which is originating in the Bakken oil fields of North Dakota.

Global Partners' plans to expand its existing complex at the port have drawn opposition from South End neighborhood activists, who fear the risk of a derailment or explosion, and environmentalists who fear potentially catastrophic damage to the river.

"This just assures me that what I'm doing is right," said County Executive Dan McCoy, a former city firefighter whose administration in March issued a moratorium at least temporarily halting Global's expansion until the health and safety impacts can be studied. "We're not backing off."

The company's plans call for a heating plant to make it easier to transfer the oil from the rail cars.

Hendrick described Sunday's spill as "very small" and said it was largely contained to "spill pans" along the tracks in the rail yard installed for just such an incident. He described the location as "blocks from the water" and said the spill was so small that city firefighters did not need to respond.

Mayor Kathy Sheehan was notified, as were the state Department of Environmental Conservation's spill response team and the Federal Railroad Administration, Hendrick said.

"The terminal has a complete spill plan with the railroad and the DEC, and they followed it as soon as it occurred," Hendrick said. "Any place where they're offloading that product there's a pan that's in the tracks for any spills."

Peter Constantakes, a spokesman for DEC, said the agency believes the 100-gallon estimate to be correct. Constantakes said most of the oil appears to have sprayed into what he described as a "secondary asphalt containment area."

The agency was on the scene Sunday as the firm Clean Harbors cleaned up the spill and will return Monday to confirm, Constantakes said.

"Everything seemed to be for the most part contained," he said.

The exact time of the incident was not immediately clear, but it appeared to have happened sometime between 2 and 2:30 p.m.

Hendrick said he did not know exactly how the oil spilled from the car, but said it's possible the day's heat could have caused it to expand.

Greenberg, the railroad spokesman, said Canadian Pacific did not own the rail car and could not comment on what might have caused the spill. But he said it's standard procedure after any incident to review the circumstances with its customers.

"Right now it looks like a valve," Constantakes said, "but we haven't been able to completely confirm that."

A representative of Massachusetts-based Global Partners to could not be reached for comment late Sunday.

Albany County Sheriff Craig Apple called it "unbelievable" that his office, which oversees emergency management for the county, was not alerted.

"Here we don't even have the decency of a heads-up," Apple said. "No matter how small it is, just give us the heads-up. This just doesn't sit well."

As recently as last month, city, county and other local officials participated in a training drill at the port with the state Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services to prepare for the possibility of an emergency.

Hendrick reiterated that all the proper state and federal authorities were notified.

While anxiety about the safety of the rail infrastructure used to transport the oil was amplified by the explosion that ripped through Lac-Megantic, Quebec, last July — killing nearly four dozen people and leveling the town after an oil train derailment — local concern began bubbling in earnest even before then.

In December 2012, the outer hull of a tanker carrying about 12 million gallons of North Dakota crude out of Albany was pierced soon after the ship left the port. No oil spilled in that incident thanks to the ship's double hull, but it stoked fears among those who believe neither state nor federal authorities were prepared to respond to an oil spill on the river.

Last month, Canadian Pacific was fined the maximum $5,000 by the state for waiting too long to report the derailment of four oil-laden cars in its rail yard near the port.

No oil spilled in that incident, but in response McCoy called for legislation making it a crime punishable by jail time for rail operators to delay reporting hazardous materials-related mishaps.

jcarleo-evangelist@timesunion.com • 518-454-5445 • @JCEvangelist_TU

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