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City Officials Say Information Lacking to Secure Toxic Chemical Shipments Through U.S. Capital By Joe Fiorill WASHINGTON — Key information is lacking that could allow for better protection of controversial rail shipments of chlorine and other dangerous materials through the U.S. capital, local officials here indicated yesterday (see GSN, Oct. 20). The officials said at a District of Columbia Council Judiciary Committee hearing that they are not aware of any complete terrorism vulnerability and threat assessment for Washington and the surrounding area or of any comprehensive data on the characteristics — inspection status, for example — of rail cargo passing through the city. “It’s a troubling issue if there isn’t an answer to that question that anybody can provide,” District of Columbia Transportation Director Dan Tangherlini said of the latter information. City lawmakers and environmental groups have called for rerouting the shipments away from Washington to prevent an accidental or intentional release of substances such as chlorine gas, which some experts say could kill thousands within minutes. Opponents of the shipments point to a history of military use of chlorine as a chemical weapon and to reports that al-Qaeda has contemplated attacks on such trains. Council Judiciary Committee Chairwoman Kathy Patterson plans next month to introduce a new bill requiring a rail-vulnerability study and stronger notification mechanisms for the shipments, and Washington Mayor Anthony Williams said yesterday that he could sign such a measure if other options were exhausted. Rail industry leaders and officials in U.S. President George W. Bush’s administration contend that rerouting the trains could have dire economic consequences and create new security risks elsewhere. Questioned yesterday by Patterson, City Administrator Robert Bobb said he knows of no regional threat and vulnerability assessment. The federal Homeland Security Department is charged with producing such a plan for the entire country. The department’s Office of National Capital Region Coordination is required, under the 2002 law that created Homeland Security, to “develop a process for receiving meaningful input from state, local, and regional authorities and the private sector in the national capital region to assist in the development of the homeland security plans and activities of the federal government.” Tangherlini said he knew of no data showing whether truck and rail shipments passing through the city have been inspected or whether they are foreign or domestic in origin. He said tracking such information is a federal responsibility but that U.S. officials are reluctant to provide such data — in part because doing so could reveal that “the inspection system, particularly at our ports, is not as robust as it needs to be at this time.” The federal government plans in the “next several weeks” to announce a plan to secure the shipments, Bobb said. Council members, who have in the past floated unsuccessful legislative bids to reroute the shipments, are now focusing on stronger notification mechanisms and an assessment of the vulnerability of Washington’s rails. Patterson said yesterday that she plans to introduce her new bill Nov. 9. Williams said that he would prefer an administrative solution but that he could eventually sign Patterson’s bill — a move whose meaning would be unclear, since the federal government has review authority over Washington legislation. “If I were shown that there were no real willingness to move on this … then I would support the measure. You know, I mean we’d have no choice,” Williams said. Washington Police Chief Charles Ramsey and Fire Chief Adrian Thompson yesterday outlined several ways in which their agencies work to protect the shipments. Ramsey noted the existence of a “buffer-zone” system under which various Metropolitan Police Department branches are called upon to provide, for example, harbor- or air-based support when a dangerous shipment traverses the city. Thompson said Washington emergency responders held a drill last month in which the scenario was a large release of a “noxious gas.”
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