WMDs on Wheels ; Trains Hauling Lethal Chemicals Pose Risks

EVERY DAY, up to two dozen tank cars filled with extremely dangerous chemicals travel by rail in New Jersey. Every day, the risk exists that one of these cars will be ruptured either by accident or terrorist attack, emitting a toxic cloud that threatens millions of people.

New Jersey political leaders and environmentalists have warned for years about the risks posed by these “WMDs” on wheels. This week the Bush administration took steps to prevent attacks on chemical- laden rail cars. The effort falls pitifully short of what is needed.

As Record Staff Writer Jim Wright reported this week, the Transportation Security Administration is spending $750,000 on a system to track the location of tank cars that carry chlorine, anhydrous ammonia and other lethal chemicals. By knowing the location of these tank cars at any given moment, government officials hope to reduce by 25 percent the amount of time the cars spend in densely populated areas.

It is critical to know the location of chemical-carrying railcars. It is disgraceful such tracking technology has not been put in place before. But a 25 percent reduction aims too low. What about the rest of the time these cars may sit unguarded and idle outside chemical plants and other locations?

A Kearny company has estimated that a rupture in one chlorine- filled railcar at its factory could threaten up to 12 million people within a 14-mile radius encompassing North Jersey, Manhattan and beyond.

The solution is to reduce the presence of ultra-hazardous chemicals in densely populated areas to as near zero as possible. One way is for industries and water-treatment plants to switch from highly lethal chemicals to less harmful substances. New Jersey, to its credit, has had some success through a 1980s law passed in response to a leak at a Union Carbide plant in India. Some New Jersey plants have begun using less deadly chemicals as a result of that law.

But about two dozen companies in the state still use large quantities of chlorine, considered one of the most deadly chemicals. State and federal homeland security officials need to use a combination of pressure and incentives to convince these companies to invest in safer industrial processes. There are other solutions, too. Sen. Frank Lautenberg is sponsoring a rail-safety bill that would invest in the design of safer tank cars and require companies that use or transport such chemicals to take extreme precautions in times of high threat. These are sensible measures.

New Jersey also needs to make sure that the only highly lethal chemicals transported in its densely populated areas have a local destination. Tank cars carrying chemicals to anywhere else should be rerouted through rural areas that are under less threat of terrorism than the areas of New Jersey bordering New York.

The New Jersey-New York area is one of the highest-priority targets for terrorists. We should not make the terrorists’ job easier by supplying the deadly weapons they need.

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