Terrorism threat prompted LV rail probe in ‘03

Mary Manning and Jace Radke

Monday, Jan. 10, 2005 | 11:13 a.m.

Nevada transportation experts are concerned about a report of unguarded trains possibly carrying hazardous materials near Las Vegas despite a heightened terror alert level on New Year's Eve 2003.

A Federal Railroad Administration inspector was sent to Las Vegas after a "credible terrorist threat" arose on Dec. 31, 2003, and visited a railyard 13 miles from McCarran International Airport, the New York Times reported in Sunday's edition.

The inspector had been sent to the Las Vegas Valley by George Gavalla, a former associate administrator at the railroad administration, and the inspector found six unguarded tank cars with markings indicating they might contain chlorine gas, according to the New York Times report.

Two hours after his initial discovery, the inspector visited another railyard in the valley and found four tank cars and they, too, were unguarded, the New York Times story notes.

The inspector visited three railyards around the valley on the night of Dec. 31, 2003, and was never challenged or talked to, the story said.

A Federal Railway Administration spokesman today referred calls to the Transportation Security Administration, but a TSA spokesman was not available. The FRA handles rail safety and dispatches inspectors, but TSA is ultimately responsible for rail security.

Sheriff Bill Young said he remembers talking about security for railroad tank cars during meetings leading up to New Year's Eve 2003 when Las Vegas was under an elevated code orange threat level.

"I recall that we had very little information on the railways at the time," Young said. "I think we ended up having all the tank cars moved outside of town so that we didn't have to station officers at all the railyards."

It was unclear in the New York Times report if the tank cars contained a dangerous substance, a nondangerous substance or were empty.

"He could have very well seen cars at a yard 13 miles south of town," Young said of the rail inspector. "We didn't want any trains in town that night."

The issue of rail security is of particular importance to Las Vegas because of the federal plan to open a high-level nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

State and local experts have been studying potential effects from truck or train accidents and the potential for subsequent releases of radioactivity.

Each year, the rail industry ships roughly 1.7 million rail car shipments of hazardous materials, said Tom White, a spokesman with the Association of American Railroads.

"To individually guard every one of them would be an impossibility," he said.

The industry works closely with intelligence agencies and the Department of Homeland Security on security issues, White said. The industry underwent a lengthy security review after Sept. 11, 2001, and permanently implemented 52 new security measures, White said. The industry employs another 78 specific security measures in certain situations, depending on the threat credibility and type, he said.

"The railroad industry takes security and safety with these shipments very seriously," White said.

The New York Times report followed a train crash Thursday in South Carolina that illustrated the potentially fatal nature of chlorine. Nine people were killed, 58 were hospitalized and hundreds more sought treatment. The ninth body was discovered Saturday and thousands of people have been kept from their homes.

In Las Vegas railroad tracks run roughly parallel to the Las Vegas Strip at a distance of about a half mile, Union Pacific spokesman John Bromley said.

Union Pacific, the nation's largest railroad and largest hauler of chemicals by rail, estimates that roughly 5 percent of its shipments nationwide involve hazardous materials.

There are hazardous materials traveling along Las Vegas tracks every day, Bromley said.

Reached Sunday, Young said he wasn't sure exactly what kinds of precautions were taken at railyards in Las Vegas during this year's New Year's celebration, and would have to check with his homeland security unit. He did note that there was no information of a possible attack this year, unlike last year.

While the extreme security precautions used in 2003 -- such as helicopters with armed federal agents flying the Strip and agents on the ground searching for chemical and biological weapons -- were available, this year they were not needed.

Young said that railways and railyards are on Metro Police's radar when it comes to homeland security.

Las Vegas FBI spokesman, Special Agent Dave Schrom, wouldn't provide specifics as to what security measures have been employed at Las Vegas-area railyards during New Year's and other special events.

"Highways and railways are taken into consideration, and we work with our federal partners to ensure that the infrastructure is protected," Schrom said of security precautions taken for special events.

The FBI is not the primary agency charged with protecting railways and trains, but the agency does work closely with federal and local law enforcement agencies and investigates terrorist threats, Schrom said.

The Federal Railway Administration is responsible for security at railyards and along railroad routes.

Schrom said that he couldn't give specific details on exactly what has been done to safeguard railways in Las Vegas during New Year's for several reasons, including concerns that terrorists could find out what security measures are used.

He did add that, "Just because someone doesn't see a protective measure doesn't mean it's not there."

Other experts said they are concerned about such hazardous shipments.

"I definitely have some big concerns about rail safety," Nevada's top transportation consultant Bob Halstead said Sunday.

"Everywhere we're seeing this trend in railroad hazardous accidents," said Halstead, who studies potential impacts of nuclear shipments from reactors to a possible high-level nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain.

"The injuries from these accidents in urban or populated areas are occurring because the suburbs are moving toward the rail routes," Halstead said.

However, security has improved in some major railyards across the country, Halstead said.

"It is a really big issue," Halstead said.

The state has been concerned since the 1990s that nuclear waste transportation casks are much more vulnerable to terrorism or sabotage, Halstead said.

The Energy Department would prefer to use railroads instead of trucks to ship most of the nation's spent nuclear fuel and high-level nuclear waste to the proposed repository.

The Energy Department estimated there would be eight accidents involving nuclear waste trains between 2010, the projected start date of shipments to Yucca, and 2034. The state Nuclear Projects Agency predicted 160 to 390 rail accidents based on possible shipments over a 38-year period.

Nevada's 1,200 miles of rail are all owned by Union Pacific Railroad Co.

Union Pacific is not concerned about shipping nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain, Bromley said.

"Union Pacific routinely handles chlorine shipments through Las Vegas," Bromley said. "With any transportation activity you're going to have accidents. That's a given."

The Energy Department has not made final decisions about which routes would be used to haul nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain.

State studies show that if nuclear waste shipments were to travel along the 35.7- mile rail route through Las Vegas, the trains would pass within a half a mile of an average of 85,100 people a day.

The Energy Department is considering an alternate rail route northeast of Las Vegas.

However, that route might not relieve train traffic through the Las Vegas area, Halstead said.

It's possible that 85 percent to 90 percent of nuclear waste shipped from Caliente in Lincoln County to Yucca Mountain, a proposed route of 319 miles, could be sent through Las Vegas. "Railroads often don't ship the most direct route," Halstead said.

"This is a horrific thing," said Fred Dilger, a transportation consultant to the state, reacting to the New York Times story.

"Frankly, this is not uncharacteristic of railroads."

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