Firm to stash chlorine at Belmont

The siding tracks at Belmont, long used to store empty rail cars like the petroleum tankers pictured above, may soon be fenced off to store tanker cars filled with chlorine.

A Texas chlorine manufacturing company is looking to store up to 4,500 tons of toxic chlorine in tanker cars on railroad sidings at Belmont along the state-owned P & L Railroad line on the east side of Whitman County.

Houston-based Canexus wants to store around 50 cars of chlorine at Belmont as the company prepares for a complete overhaul of its Vancouver manufacturing plant.

Marty Cove, Canexus logistics manager, said it is “more likely than not” that the cars could move into Belmont as soon as January.

The fact that plans for storing chemical cars advanced without input from local elected officials, though, has upset residents of the area.

“It seems like everything was laid out before we even had a chance to know about it,” said Belmont resident Bob Miller, who lives across Highway 27 from the tracks. “I appreciate these people coming to see me, but it doesn’t change my mind.”

Canexus got the okay for the project from the state transportation and ecology departments and with the federal Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Homeland Security.

“If I were one of the residents nearby, I would naturally have a concern,” said Cove. “But we as a company have a policy to go beyond what laws require.”

Canexus also wants to move the cars out of Vancouver before the 2010 Winter Olympics to remove them as a potential terrorist target. Cove said the company has not been asked to remove the cars, but said the International Olympic Committee placed a transportation embargo on Salt Lake City during the 2002 winter games.

Chlorine is highly toxic. The liquid will be transported and stored in double-walled steel tanker cars. Canexus is currently having an entire fleet of new storage cars built.

Cove said the company has a spotless safety record. He also noted that Canexus has been manufacturing chlorine in Vancouver for more than 50 years and has never had to evacuate the plant because of a leak.

Whitman County commissioners who have jurisdiction over the unincorporated Belmont community, however, had not heard of the project until asked for comment by the Gazette last week.

“I’m disappointed there hasn’t been some contact with us,” said Commissioner Greg Partch.

Canexus did contact county officials, but commissioners were not consulted.

Mark Storey, Whitman County public works director, said Canexus officials approached the county planning department about permits two weeks ago.

After reviewing the project, county staff determined storage of chlorine cars on the tracks was an issue best handled by state and federal officials.

“We looked at this and determined it was a rail issue. It’s really out of our jurisdiction,” he said.

Storey said putting special local regulations on storage cars would present possible problems throughout the county, where freight cars are stored on unused track.

“It’s just easier that the folks in the state rail office handle this,” he said.

Mike Rowswell with the state Department of Transportation’s rail office, said he has reviewed the company’s plan and feels all precautionary measures have been taken.

The state purchased the track through Belmont as part of its 2005 purchase of the Palouse River & Coulee City Railroad.

Residents who live in Belmont, having just learned about the plan this week, were more concerned.

“They say they’re going to be real safe about it, but that doesn’t change the fact that my wife and I are real nervous about it,” said Tom Bieker, who lives less than 200 feet from the track.

Cove and Stan Patterson, president of the Washington and Idaho Railway, said they determined Belmont to be the best place to store the cars because of its remote location. The two met with Belmont residents at the Bieker residence for the first time Tuesday to discuss the project.

“The fact that there’s very few people around kind of limits the possible damage from an attack,” Cove told the Gazette. “And that makes it that much less attractive as a terrorist target.”

Patterson said Belmont is ideal because it is south of his busiest loading site, Co-Ag’s Oakesdale grain facilities, and is north of the major snow belt, around Garfield.

The company’s customers, primarily in the U.S. Southwest, use the product to clean municipal water systems. The Belmont location puts the cars near the Burlington Northern & Santa Fe main line at Spokane. Canexus primarily ships on BNSF lines.

For now, the company plans to store cars at Belmont until next summer. Cove, though, said increased production from the new Vancouver plant could also mean the company will continue to use the Belmont as a long-term storage location.

To prevent possible terrorist strikes or vandalism, the company plans to surround the nearly one mile of siding at Belmont with a six-foot chain link fence. The company will also pay guards to watch the tanks.

“From what they tell me, it should be a pretty safe operation,” said Miller “But they’re putting up a six foot fence with razor wire at the top. That kind of throws up a red flag in my mind.”

Canexus met Tuesday night in the Oakesdale fire station with local volunteer firefighters, law enforcement and the county’s hazardous materials squad to brief them on the possible impacts from a chemical leak or spill.

Mike Heston, head of the county’s hazardous materials team, said he was concerned that no local officials were consulted before the company was given the go-ahead on the project.

“It seems like they’ve got things under control,” he told the Gazette last week. “But still, with all those chemicals sitting there for months at a time, I wouldn’t want to be downwind of Belmont.”