LPG - soon to explode near you
Freight train derails in Italy, kills 12, burns 50
The Guardian, June 30, 2009
VIAREGGIO, Italy (AP) A freight train carrying gas derailed and exploded in the midst of a small Italian town, setting off a fire that killed at least 12 people, many as they slept in their homes, and injured at least 50, officials said Tuesday.
The 14-car train was traveling from the northern city of La Spezia to Pisa when a car derailed while traveling through a residential neighborhood beside the train station in the Tuscan seaside town of Viareggio just before midnight Monday.
A train car filled with liquefied petroleum gas, or LPG, sprang a leak, causing an explosion that collapsed five buildings and set fire to a vast area. Homes crumbled or burned, killing residents as they slept.
The exact death toll was unclear as hundreds of rescuers searched through the rubble for survivors. (...)
LPG transport near or through populated areas is a huge issue in Quebec where the Charest government has been ramming through LPG terminal develiopment over and above tcitizen groups and environmentalists' objections. One of them is just acrioss the St.Lawrence from Quebec City and Ile d'Orléans, an ecological and historical treasure. In Atlantic Canada too. They have managed to stop it in New England but not in Canada.
Amazing to hear it's a concern in Quebec, where the National Assembly in 2008 voted 100% against the storage of nuclear waste on the Lower North Shore of Quebec, where I live.
I am not sure I see the link. I have read internal environmental damage assessments of what will happen when a spark ignites a LPG carrier in the St.Lawrence and it isn't pretty. Imagine a huge ball of fire pushed downwind along the South Shore from Quebec City for 100-200 km...
dp
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I meant that I found it odd that the National Assembly said no to nuclear waste but yes to LPG.
Yeh most times the ignition source of these disasters are never known. It's always best to think the can spontaneously combust. This one pipeline near Regina blew up a few years back and the reason was "friction of the earth".
Trains routinely start fires from hot bearings and other defective mechanics near gas storage facility's in Saskatchewan without anyone batting an eye.
This recent disaster should follow the norm of not many casualties on day one to many more on the following days. Already it's being downplayed as a simple derailment on many news services.
The oil and gas industry in cahoots with government and police downplay and have full control of all media info. When it comes to oil and gas they will stoop very low to hide the truth as virtually everyone has a pipeline going into their homes and they don't want you to know the many dangers associated with that product and especially the concentrated liquid variety's they routinely pipe, store and transport in your face on a daily basis.
Some links:
http://www.savepassamaquoddybay.org/index.html
http://timrileylaw.com/LNG_LiquefiedNaturalGas.htm
http://www.dtra.mil/newsservices/fact_sheets/display.cfm?fs=hpac
The epa makes available free software that can give you a model of gas dispersion if you happen to be living close to liquefied gas facility or other chemical facility. Or if a leak or derailment should happen.Yep the government and oil and gas will place you and your famillies health, safety, and lives in danger and in jeopardy on a daily basis and there is not a damn thing you can do. God help you if you do..they have police to protect them from you the victim of this terror.
http://www.epa.gov/emergencies/content/cameo/aloha.htm
Saying all that I have come to the conclusion that the general public doesn't really give a shit about this matter unless they are suffering the ramifications ...just like the First nations people getting cancer from oil sand projects...or contaminated water killing Quebecers (val cartier) or lobotomys performed on orphans (dulpessy) ...Canadians really don't give a shit. Hell they'll even elect a government that will give the oil and gas company 10's of millions of dollars during a recession to encourage it.
Actually, this sad assessment simply isn't always true. Quebec citizens fought a great battle against the Rabaska LPG port project on the South Shore of Quebec City these last few years. There is new NFB film by Magnus Isacsson and Martin Duckworth about this struggle, The Battle of Rabaska. Screen it locally, start a discussion, get info about LPG facilities in your area, agitate!