Calls for Better Emergency Plans for Denver's Oil Trains

Jon Murray reports on a growing concern in the Denver area about freight trains carrying crude oil shipments through urban neighborhoods of all kinds—"old and new, upscale and hardscrabble."

Some residents have made appeals, "met with mixed success," for increased emergency plans. "The issue prompted a rare budget amendment dispute in early November between Mayor Michael Hancock and a majority of the City Council, led by at-large member Debbie Ortega," according to Murray. "Hancock rejected their amendment to fund a $250,000 outside safety study. Instead, he ordered up a working group, led by Fire Chief Eric Tade, that by July 1 will examine what more the city might do to reduce risks."

There is a little of a "who was here first" dilemma at play in the controversy. The rail lines and train yards predate a lot of the neighborhoods and developments in the Central Platte Valley, but increasing crude shipments have raised the stakes of putting those transportation routes in such close proximity to residential neighborhoods. Murray explains the crude oil shipments through the city as part of a broader trend: "Nationally, crude oil volume on the rails has skyrocketed from just shy of 10,000 tank cars in 2008 to about 500,000 last year, The Associated Press recently reported."