Danger Around the Bend

8/9/2019 Danger Around the Bend

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Danger Around the Bendthe threat of oil trains in Pennsylvan


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DANGER AROUND THE BEND

THE THREAT OF OIL TRAINSIN PENNSYLVANIA

Written by David Masur and Chloe Coffmanfor the PennEnvironment Research & Policy Center

February 2015

Data compiled by Brook Lenker, Matt Kelso, and Samantha Malonefor the FracTracker Alliance

The authors bear responsibility for any factual errors. The recommendations arethose of PennEnvironment Research & Policy Center. The views expressed in thisreport are those of the authors and do not necessarily reect the views of ourfunders or those who provided review.

The PennEnvironment Research and Policy Center is a 501(c)(3) organizationfocused on protecting our environment and providing the people of Pennsylvaniaa voice in the environmental debate. Drawing on more than 30 years of experience,our professional staff combines independent research, practical ideas andeffective educational campaigns to overcome the opposition of special interestsand win real results for Pennsylvania’s environment. For more information aboutPennEnvironment Research & Policy Center or for additional copies of this report, please visit www.pennenvironmentcenter.org


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list of the top 25 zip codes at risk, see TableA-1 in the Appendix).

• The top ve Pennsylvania cities with the mostresidents at risk are: Philadelphia (709869,residents), Pittsburgh (183,456 residents),Reading (70,012 residents), Scranton (61,004residents), and Erie (over 51,058 residents).

Besides the inherent threat of moving massiveamounts of the highly volatile fuel that is frackedfrom North Dakota’s Bakken Formation, the lack ofproper safety regulations and basic right-to-know lawsincreases the likelihood of a catastrophic accident.Some of the biggest problems when it comes to regu-lating oil trains in America include:

• The over-reliance on dangerous and dirtyfossil fuels in U.S. will continue to putour health, environment and communitiesat risk. As long as the nation continues itsreliance on dirty, dangerous fuel sources likeoil from the Bakken Formation—and trans-porting it from the Midwest to point acrossthe nation—the threat of a serious accidentor catastrophe will exist. We must do more tomove the nation off of these polluting, dan-gerous fuel sources and onto clean energy al-ternatives that exist today and won’t pose thethreat of oil trains.

• The U.S. must halt the transport Bakkencrude until proven safe—instead ofincreasing the transport of this fuel until acatastrophic accident occurs. Bakken crudeis highly volatile and poses an extreme threatto communities, be it by oil trains or pipeline.Until the oil companies can ensure safetyfor local communities, this practice must bestopped.

• The general public lacks the necessary in-formation about oil trains traveling throughtheir communities, in order to be able torespond to a train derailment or explosion. Residents, community leaders and rst re-sponders are largely unaware these trains aretraveling through their cities, leaving themwholly unprepared should disaster strike. Itis essential that local community members,their leaders, and rst responders have accessto information about when these trains aretraveling through their communities, how

much oil they’re carrying, and safety mea-sures taken by the rail companies to protectthe public.

• Oil trains are often routed through heavilypopulated communities. As the data inthis report show, oil trains put millions ofPennsylvanians at risk. If trains will continueto be used as a means of oil transport, we needto ensure that they don’t pass through ourcities and densely populated communities.

• Oil companies do not pay their fair shareto transport oil in this dangerous fashion,leaving incentives to cut corners and putcommunities at risk. Loopholes in existinglaws allow oil companies to hold onlyminimal insurance or bonding in preparationof a worst case scenario. For example, Quebecsubmitted a $400 million claim following thethe Lac-Megantic disaster —yet the traincompany was insured for only $25 million,leaving taxpayers holding the bag and addinginsult to injury for local residents. This shouldnot be the case—there should be mandatoryinsurance coverage for disasters. These oilcompanies should also assess fees to bothcover the cost of impact on communities, aswell as stricter safety violation fees.

• America’s rail system is ailing, and rail linesthat have been out of service for years arenow springing back into use following theBakken oil boom. Trains traveling on di-lapidated rail lines and bridges increases thelikelihood of an oil train derailment. To makematters worse, outdated train cars that areproven to be unable to deter accidents or ex-plosions are often used to transport the crudeon oil trains. Outdated train cars need to beretired, the railways these trains travel onshould be repaired and be regularly inspected,and a safe speed limit for all trains carryingBakken crude should be implemented.

This report shows that we must protect Pennsylvania’scommunities from the growing threat of oil trainscarrying explosive crude from the Bakken Formation.Through the implementation of commonsensepolicy solutions, we can help to protect the millionsof Pennsylvanians at risk and gradually move awayfrom dirty and dangerous fossil fuels, towards a cleanenergy future.

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Oil Trains threaten Pennsylvania’s communities

of Lac-Mégantic in the Province of Quebec on July6, 2013. At 1:15 am, a train carrying 60 railcars ofhighly volatile and explosive Bakken Formation oilbroke free of its moorings and rolled downhill into thetown. The train cars derailed in the dead of night andexploded into a massive, catastrophic reball. Fire-ghters and rst responders weren’t able to get within½ mile of the explosion. All told, it took more than1,000 reghters from 30 towns and over 1 milliongallons of water to put out the explosion. When there was nally extinguished, 47 people had lost theirlives.

“For several minutes we tried to convince ourselvesthat it wasn’t true. But what happened to us was anightmare. When we removed our hands from oureyes, the horror was still there and the worst was yetto come,” said Roy Laroche, Lac-Mégantic resident,recalling the horric oil train crash.

At the same time, Pennsylvania has seen numerousnear misses when it comes to oil train derailmentsand accidents. In January 2014, a train derailed whiletraveling on a bridge over the Schuylkill River andI-76 in Philadelphia. Seven train cars dangled overthe river, and the interstate was shut down for severalhours. Yet less than a month later, a Bakken crude oil

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The growing practice of shipping volatile oil from North Dakota’s Bakken formation by rail is puttingPennsylvania’s—and America’s—communities at un-told risk.

This risk has become all too apparent with the recentCSX oil train disaster near Mt. Carbon, West Virginiaon February 16, 2015. In that recent accident, thetrain derailed, exploded, and then burned for dayswhile contaminating the neighboring Kanawha Riverwhich supplies drinking water for downstream com-munities, and burned a home to the ground.

And with dramatic uptick in oil train trafc, thethreat of a major accident to our neighborhoods andcommunities will only increase.

Sadly, the story of Mt. Carbon’s train derailment andexplosion are all too familiar: numerous accidentsand oil train catastrophes have taken place in thepast few years, horrically demonstrating the dangerthese trains pose. Between 2012 and 2014, 8 majoraccidents and 250 safety incidents involving oil trainsoccurred in North America.

These gures include the worst oil train accident thathas occurred to date took place in the Canadian town

Lac-Mégantic, Quebec oil train disaster


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Oil Trains threaten Pennsylvania’s communities 4

train derailed in Vandergrift, Pennsylvania, located 36miles northeast of Pittsburgh. One of the 21 train carsthat derailed crashed into a metal processing plant,and 10,000 gallons of crude oil spilled. Most recently,a freight train containing crude oil traveling to an oilrenery in south Philadelphia derailed on January 31,2015. Fortunately no leak, re or explosion resulted.And the risk from oil trains in Philadelphia appears tobe growing: more than 65 cases of oil train cars travel-ing to Philadelphia have been reported to have faulty,leaking, or absent safety components.

Lack of protective policies leaves Pennsylvania’scommunities at riskFrom the explosion in Casselton, North Dakota tothe catastrophic oil train accident in Quebec to the

many near misses in Pennsylvania and the most re-cent disaster in West Virginia, it is clear that oil trainsput our communities at risk for death, injury, and de-struction.

In the past few years, the number of trains carrying oilfrom the Bakken Formation throughout Pennsylvaniahas increased dramatically. The daily oil productionin North Dakota has increased nearly 14-fold since2012, leading to more oil being transported acrossthe country daily. And with more train trafc comesmore risk of accident.

Besides the inherent threat of transporting highlyvolatile oil by rail, the lack of commonsense policiesto protect the public increases the risk for future oiltrain explosions or derailments in Pennsylvania andelsewhere.

For example, one of the most egregious examples ofpolicy shortfalls is the fact that oil and rail compa-nies are not required to inform local neighborhoods ormunicipalities about the oil trains traveling throughtheir communities. This makes it impossible for localofcials and rst responders to prepare for accidents.Access to information about oil train routes and risksis a core premise of the general public’s ability to holda thoughtful discussion about how to tackle this press-ing issue.

Another challenge is America’s dilapidated infra-structure—and the lack of initiative by policymakersto fully address this problem. America’s rail lines arein deplorable conditions, and poor infrastructure canlead to derailments, triggering explosions and signif-icant damage. The nation’s infrastructure is in such

disarray that the American Society for Civil Engi-neers gave it the grad of a D+. This score includesAmerica’s railways, and rails that were long aban-doned have sprung back into use to accommodate theoil boom of the past ve years.

To add insult to injury, when oil train disasters havehappened, it’s possible that the local communitiescould shoulder the brunt of the cost. Quebec sub-mitted a claim for the Lac-Mégantic oil train disas-ter to cover $400 million in damages —but the traincompany responsible only had liability insurance of$25 million. Even worse, the train company led forbankruptcy following the accident, leaving the vic-tims without any nancial assistance or payment fordamages or loss of life. If rail and oil companies mustbe prepared to be insured or bonded to cover the fullcost of a worst case disaster, they are more likely totake further precautions in order to protect their bot-tom line.

The infrastructure used to transport volatile crude oilis inadequate. The Federal Railroad Association ad-

Bakken crude oil comes from drilling in the BFormation, located in North Dakota. It containsits of both oil and natural gas, which can be acby hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking.” Until technological developments, the oil containedformation was too difficult to access to yieldproduction. But advances in this extraction tecgy since 2007 have transformed the area into a oil producer—North Dakota now ranks second

U.S. for oil production. The vast expansion over the last 4 years (from 470 wells to over 3today) means that there is more oil to transport market, both domestically and abroad. This inis especially concerning considering that the Upartment of Transportation stated in early 2014Bakken crude oil may be more flammable thantional crude, therefore making it more dangertransport by rail.

BAKKEN CRUDE:How we get it and why we ship it


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• 3,940,794 Pennsylvanians live within thehalf mile evacuation zone of an oil train di-saster in the Commonwealth.

• Sixteen (16) of the 25 most at-risk zip codes are found in the city of Philadelphia .

• Over 860,000 Pennsylvania children live with-in in these evacuation zones.

Five counties in Pennsylvania have almost 2 millionpeople living in the potential evacuation zone. Thisincludes:

1. Philadelphia County: 709,9552. Allegheny County: 507,1723. Montgomery County: 285,2244. Delaware County: 177,8295. Berks County: 150,154

Oil trains carrying Bakken crude oil travel all acrossPennsylvania, rumbling through our cities and highlypopulated areas. The ve Pennsylvania cities withthe most people living in a potential evacuationarea are:

1. Philadelphia, 709,8692. Pittsburgh, 183,4563. Reading, 70,0124. Scranton, 61,0045. Erie, 51,058

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mits its inspectors are able to inspect less than onepercent of America’s railroad system. This number isunacceptably and outrageously too low. Higher levelof inspections and overall improvements to America’srailway systems needs to be a priority moving forward.

The rail cars that are currently used to transport Bak-ken crude are inherently proven to be unsafe. DOT-111 cars have historically been used, but these cars are

known to frequently rupture or puncture in the case ofderailments. To respond to this issue, the U.S. DOTrecommended a phase out of using these type of traincars in July, 2014. However, the supposedly “safer”cars, the CPC 1232, have failed at least four times, in-cluding the recent disaster in Mt. Carbon, West Vir-ginia. The distinct lack of train cars that can safelytransport Bakken crude via rail needs to be addressed.

It is crucial to regulate the speed at which these trainslled with volatile Bakken crude go. According to theFederal Railroad Administration, it is extremely dif-cult to prevent a crude oil spill when cars go over 30mph. The train that derailed near Mt. Carbon, WestVirginia was going 33 mph—well under the speedlimit of 50 mph. This issue coupled with the absenceof truly safe train cars presents a frightening threatto Pennsylvania communities where these trains aretraveling.

PA communities at greatest riskGiven the recent oil train explosion in Mt. Carbon,West Virginia, PennEnvironment and FracTrackerreviewed the threat that a similar accident poses toresidents of Pennsylvania. Using data from the OakRidge National Laboratory, the U.S. Census Bureauand GIS mapping, FracTracker and PennEnviron-ment found that nearly 4 million Pennsylvanians livewithin the potential evacuation zone for an oil trainaccident. For our data, we used the ½ mile evacuationzone as set out by rst responders in West Virginia, theCasselton, North Dakota accident and Lac-Megantic,Canada catastrophe. At the same time, our researchuncovered the Pennsylvania counties, municipalities,and even neighborhoods that have the most residentsliving within this ½ mile evacuation zone. Our studyfound the following :

A Bakken crude oil train

It may not happen today or tomorrow, but oneday a town or a city is going to get wiped out.-Larry Mann, rail safety expert and principal author of the Federal Railroad Safety Act.

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Within Pennsylvania’s major metropolitan areas,the highest at-risk zip codes include:

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The city of Philadelphia has the highest populationliving in the potential evacuation zone of an oil traindisaster.

• Over 700,000 people are at risk , including al-most 170,000 children.

• 16 zip codes in the top percentile for at-riskareas in the state are located across the city ofPhiladelphia.

• Almost every person (98.6%) living in the Phil-adelphia zip code of 19142 (southwest Phil-adelphia), lives in the evacuation zone of anoil train disaster.

In communities across Pennsylvania, hundreds ofthousands of children are at risk:

• 167,224 in Philadelphia County• 91,436 in Allegheny County• 64,172 in Montgomery County• 42,515 in Delaware County• 39,643 in Berks County

Neighborhoods across Pennsylvania are at risk.These are the top 10 neighborhoods at risk in theCommonwealth, and the number of people wholive in the evacuation zone in each.

Zip

19143

19134

19120

19140

19104

19601

18702

19142

19136

19132

Location

West Philadelphia

Northeast Philadelphia

Olney

Huntington Park

University City/ Mantua

Reading

Wilkes-Barre

Southwest Philadelphia

Holmesburg

Philadelphia’s Alleghenyneighborhood

# people

53,016

48,200

45,513

38,471

32,332

30,280

29,277

29,181

28,541

19132

% of residents

82%

79%

67%

71%

62%

92%

73%

99%

70%

74%

Zip

1914319601

18702

15213

18504

16503

18103

1710417403

16601

18042

18018

17601

15906

Section

West Philadelphia near the University of Penn

NorhternReading, near the airport

Eastern Wilkes-Barre

Oakland Neighborhood

Scranton-northwestern area of Scranton

Eastern end of the City of Erie

Southern neighborhoods of Allentown

Southern neighborhoods, city of Harrisburg

South-central York

Central Altoona

Central and southern Easton

Western Bethlehem

Northern Lancaster, including Silver Spring

Northern Johnstown

# people

53,016

30,208

29,277

22,451

15,426

14,665

17,751

16,70115,088

15,692

24,115

19,675

14,366

8,280

City

Philadelphia

Reading

Wilkes-Barre

Pittsburgh

Scranton

Erie

Allentown

HarrisburgYork

Altoona

Easton

Bethlehem

Lancaster

Johnstown

A DOT-111 train car


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Policy Recommendations

3. Information about oil trains must be easilyavailable to the public, decision makers, and rstresponders

• Pennsylvania residents have a right to know aboutthe threats facing their communities. Trains carryinghighly volatile oil are virtually traveling through theirbackyards, putting families at extreme risk. The rightto know is a core part of our democratic process, andthe public should have access to this information.This information is especially crucial for our commu-nities’ local leaders and rst responders, consideringall the dangers of transporting the oil itself.

• Information available to the general public mustinclude the trains’ routes, when oil trains will travel

through the area, how many cars the train is pulling,and how much crude oil the trains are carrying.

• The threshold for oil companies to report Bakkencrude travel via rail in the U.S. is currently set far toohigh: only trains carry 1 million gallons or more arerequired to inform national and state ofcials undercurrent federal regulations —this amount is far toohigh because communities are still at great risk fortrains carrying less than 1 million gallons. Moreover,re departments and rst responders often lack thecapacity to properly deal with a blaze caused by more

than 9,000-10,000 gallons of Bakken crude oil —thebest they can do is evacuate the area and wait for there to burn down to a manageable size. PennEnviron-ment calls for the the reporting threshold to be low-ered to 5,000 gallons, so that rst responders and localelected ofcials can prepare appropriately.

While energy and rail companies have said that shar-ing this information poses a security threat, this ex-planation appears misleading. The U.S. Departmentof Transportation has stated that they found “no basisto conclude that the public disclosure of the informa-

tion [about oil train routes] is detrimental to transpor-tation safety.”

4. We must reroute trains carrying Bakken crudearound heavily populated areas.

• The National Transportation Safety Board rec -ommends that crude oil trains should avoid heavilypopulated areas. Specically, we need to prevent anycrude oil rail travel from occurring within one mile ofdensely populated areas.

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1. Get off oil and move towards clean and renew-

able energy sourcesAt the end of the day, the best way to remove the riskfrom oil trains is to get America off of oil as quick-ly as possible. This means promoting and bringingmore clean energy online, and accelerating policiesto reduce America’s oil consumption. We can movetowards this goal through a variety of policies, whichcan be read about extensively in Environment Amer-ica Research and Policy Center’s report Getting offOil. Some of these policies include:

• Use a variety of tools to encourage the deploymentof vehicles operating on electricity, including feder-al light-duty fuel economy/global warming emissionstandards, nancial incentives, programs to expandelectric vehicle infrastructure, and minimum sales re-quirements for automakers, so that 22 percent of newlight-duty vehicles sold in 2030 are electric vehicles.

• Require a 10 percent reduction in the life cycleglobal warming impact of transportation fuels by 2020and (at least) a 15 percent reduction by 2030.

• Provide incentives and other support for the instal -lation of energy efciency improvements in existinghomes and commercial buildings, sufcient to achievea 30-50 percent energy savings per building at 75 per-cent of American homes and commercial buildings.

2. Ban oil trains carrying Bakken crude

• Until Bakken crude can be proven inherently safefor local communities through which it is transport-ed, the dangerous practice of oil train transportationacross Pennsylvania and the nation must be stopped.


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Policy Recommendations

7. To make oil train traffic as safe as possible, it iscrucial for the rail companies to make additionaloperational safety and oversight improvements,both on the railways and the trains themselves.

• It is crucial to make infrastructural improvementsand updates for America’s crumbling and outdatedrailway system. Federal and state ofcials, along withthe companies that own the rail lines, must makefunding and improving rail infrastructure a top priori-ty to avoid future oil train accidents.

• Less than one percent of America’s Railway systemis inspected annually by the Federal Railroad Admin-istration. Clearly the U.S. Department of Transporta-tion must mandate stricter oversight and greater ratesof inspections for oil trains and America’s rail system.

• Trains carrying Bakken crude need stricter safetystandards in place, including requiring a crew of at-least two people for each train, as well as audio andvideo surveillance in the train engine to ensure rulesare followed.

• Oil trains must adhere to reduced speed limits thathelp to signicantly decrease the possibility of a de-railment, accident or explosion. An across-the-board

speed limit of 25 mph should be made mandatory bythe U.S. DOT, a recommendation that is supportedby their own Pipeline and Hazardous Materials SafetyAdministration.

ConclusionAs this report shows, transporting volatile oil from North Dakota’s Bakken Formation is growing at arapid pace, has a concerning track record of recentaccidents and near misses, and puts cities, neighbor-hoods, and millions of people in Pennsylvania—andacross the nation—at risk.

The only way to truly protect the public from trans-porting this dangerous energy source is to get Americaoff oil as quickly as possible. We must also halt the useof oil trains in Pennsylvania and across the countryimmediately.

Yet in the short term, it is crucial that federal, stateand local ofcials implement a set of commonsensepolicy handles to attempt to avoid the gravest threatsof an oil train accident in Pennsylvania.

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5. Oil trains should not be permitted to travelthrough Pennsylvania until there is an approvedemergency response plan for the entire trainroute.

• An emergency response plan must be drafted bythe rail and oil companies for the entire train route.This plan must obtain input and be approved by rstresponders, and state and local government ofcials,and shared with the public. The plan must includea robust process for public input and review so thatcommunity members can have their voices heard.And the general public must have access to this emer-gency response plan once nalized.

6. Oil train companies need to pay their fair share

• All oil trains travelling through Pennsylvaniashould be required to have insurance and bondingto fully cover the worst case scenario of accident fortheir train travel through the Commonwealth. Weneed to ensure that the companies putting our com-munities at risk are held fully nancially responsiblein case of future accidents—not leaving victims hold-ing the bag.

• Pennsylvania should assess fees on oil trains in orderto cover the costs of providing emergency responseplans, necessary equipment for rst responders inpreparation for a worst case scenario, and for the de-velopment of the emergency response plan in order tosafeguard the public from oil trains. This fee system isthe only way to properly ensure that there is adequateemergency response capacity and that the taxpayersdon’t burden the cost. Such an upfront transportationfee must be part of the cost of doing business for oilcompanies.

• Mandatory safety violation fees. Given the shoddytrack record of energy and train companies when itcomes to avoiding accidents and protecting the pub-lic, state and federal ofcials must implement man-datory minimum nes for safety violation of oil traintransport. These nes should cover issues such asleaking train cars, unsafe infrastructure, trains that aremissing or have faulty safety equipment, derailments,or speed violations. For repeat and chronic offenders,U.S. DOT and PennDOT should halt their rail activ-ity of Bakken oil through the Commonwealth until atime when the company proves it can do so in com-pliance with basic laws and regulations.


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Notes 9

1. Mary Ann Thomas, Feds: Broken spike caused Vandergrift derailment, oil spill, TribLive, June 20, 2014,

2.FracTracker Alliance,

3. Allan Woods, Quebec submits $400 million claim for Lac-Mégantic train disaster, The Toronto Star, June 16,2014,

4. Kelly Fay, Pressure is Growing for a Thorough Review of Crude Oil Transportation through NY, LegislativeGazette, April 21, 2014,

5. Geology.com,

6. Danny Boyd, Soaring Oil Production Spurs Infrastructure Growth Across Booming Bakken Play, American Oiland Gas Reporter, May 2012,

7. Department of Transportation Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, Safe Transportation ofEnergy Products- Chronology,

8. Ryan Quinn, Man outruns train derailment: ‘The house was blowing up behind me’, The West Virginia Gazette,February 18, 2015,

9. Isaiah Thompson, Gov’t Data Sharpens Focus on Crude-Oil Train Routes, ProPublica, November 25, 2014,

10. Curtis Tate, Trains plus crude oil equals trouble down the track, McClatchy DC,

11. Allan Woods, Quebec submits $400 million claim for Lac-Mégantic train disaster, The Toronto Star, June 16,2014,

12. Suzanne Weiss, Toronto activists honour the victims of Lac Megantic, East End Against Line 9, July 7, 2014,

13. Sarah Glover, Dan Stamm and David Chang, Train Derails on Bridge Over Schuylkill River, NBC Philadelphia, January 21, 2014,

14. Mary Ann Thomas, Feds: Broken spike caused Vandergrift derailment, oil spill, TribLive, June 20, 2014,

15. Alex Wigglesworth, CSX freight train partially derails in South Philadelphia, Philly.com,


17. Danny Boyd, Soaring Oil Production Spurs Infrastructure Growth Across Booming Bakken Play, American Oiland Gas Reporter, May 2012,


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10

18. Ashley Halsey III, U.S. Infrastructure gets D+ in annual report, The Washington Post, March 19, 2013,


20. Allan Woods, Quebec submits $400 million claim for Lac-Mégantic train disaster, The Toronto Star, June 16,2014

21. Kelly Fay, Pressure is Growing for a Thorough Review of Crude Oil Transportation through NY, LegislativeGazette, April 21, 2014,

22. Government Accountability Ofce Report to Congress, Rail Safety: Improved Human Capital Planning CouldAddress Emerging Safety Oversight Challenges, U.S. Government Accountability Ofce, December 2013,


24. U.S. Department of Transportation, U.S. DOT Announces Comprehensive Proposed Rulemaking for the SafeTransportation of Crude Oil, Flammable Materials, July 23, 2014

25. Curtis Tate, West Virginia, Canada derailments renew focus on oil tank cars, McClatchy DC, February 17, 2015,

26. Rebecca Leber, Oil-Train Spills Are Worse Than Ever, and Obama’s New Safety Rules Aren’t Enough, NewRepublic, July 23, 2014,

27. Kris Maher, West Virginia Oil Train That Derailed Was Traveling Under Speed Limit, Wall Street Journal,February 19, 2015


Notes


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Appendices 11

Zipcode

19143

19134

19120

19140

19104

19601

18702

19142

19136

19132

19013

19131

19145

19111

19401

18042

17701

18704

19124

15213

19116

19460

19146

15601

19141

Neighborhood

West Philadelphia

Northeast Philadelphia, Port Richmond neighborhood

North Philadelphia, Olney

North Philadelphia, Huntingdon Park

West Philadelphia, University City and Mantua

Reading

Wilkes Barre

Southwest Philadelphia

Holmesburg

North Philadelphia, Allegheny neighborhood

Center City

Wynneeld, Fairmount

Southwest Philadelphia, Packer Park neighborhood

Oxford Circle, Fox Chase

Norristown

Kingston

Williamsport

Kingston, Forty Fort

Juniata, Frankford in Philadelphia

Oakland, Pittsburgh

Sumerton, near Bustleton

Phoenixville

Grays Ferry, Point Breeze

Greensburg, Westmoreland Cty

Ogontz, Fern Rock

Total Population in zip code

64,849

60,675

68,104

54,133

51,808

32,998

40,295

29,595

40,647

36,268

35,130

43,17247,261

63,090

41,753

41,570

44,661

31,206

66,691

30,844

33,112

40,154

35,113

59,483

31,376

Children (under the age of 18) livingin a possible evacuation zone

13,361

15,634

13,309

11,005

4,306

9,541

6,056

9,137

5,776

6,745

7,293

5,4726,603

5,791

6,282

5,573

4,743

4,540

7,539

988

4,078

5,044

4,600

3,764

5,370

People living in a possibleevacuation zone

53,016

48,200

45,513

38,471

32,332

30,280

29,277

29,181

28,541

26,780

26,679

25,83725,231

24,959

24,124

24,115

24,108

23,639

23,353

22,451

22,250

21,960

21,951

21,895

21,888

Percentat risk (total)

81.75%

79.44%

66.83%

71.07%

62.41%

91.76%

72.66%

98.60%

70.22%

73.84%

75.94%

59.85%53.39%

39.56%

57.78%

58.01%

53.98%

75.75%

35.02%

72.79%

67.20%

54.69%

62.52%

36.81%

69.76%

Table A-1: The top 25 PA zip codes with the largest populations living in the possible evacuation zone

City

Philadelphia

AlleghenyMontgomery

Delaware

Berks

Bucks

Luzerne

Chester

Westmoreland

Lancaster


1,167,224

91,43664,172

42,515

39,643

31,502

27,407

28,428

22,346

24,596


70,9955

507,172285,224

177,829

150,154

146,213

134,851

115,551

111,218

106729

Table A-2: The top 10 PA counties with the largest populations living in the possible evacuation zone


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Appendices 12

City

City of Philadelphia

Pittsburgh

Reading

Scranton

Erie

Allentown

Wilkes-Barre

Harrisburg

Abington township

City of York

City of Chester

Lower Merion township

Altoona

Bethlehem

Williamsport

City of Lancaster

Norristown borough

Ridley township

Cheltenham township

Easton

Johnstown

Bensalem township

City of LebanonUpper Merion township

Chambersburg borough


16,7212

25,776

22,120

12,390

13,161

12,632

6,664

8,862

6,630

8,6587,261

5,527

6,118

4,980

4,461

4,735

5,944

4,416

3,813

3,911

3,642

3,248

4,2573,157

3,563


709,869

183,456

70,012

61,004

51,058

44,035

33,733

31,791

28,826

28,70026,759

26,107

25,777

25,264

22,674

22,667

21,778

20,307

18,311

17,304

17,113

16,596

16,15415,901

15,337

Table A-3: The top 25 PA municipalities with the largest populations living in the possible evacuation


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Appendices 13

Map A-4: Erie residents living in the possible oil train evacuation zone

Map A-5: Harrisburg residents living in the possible oil train evacuation zone


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Appendices 14

Map A-6: Johnstown residents living in the possible oil train evacuation zone

Map A-7: Lehigh Valley residents living in the possible oil train evacuation zone


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Appendices 15

Map A-8: Philadelphia residents living in the possible oil train evacuation zone

Map A-9: Pittsburgh residents living in the possible oil train evacuation zone


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Appendices 16

Map A-10: Scranton and Wilkes-Barre residents living in the possible oil train evacuation zone

Documents

Danger Around the Bend