PORTLAND (WGME) -- As train derailments continue to make headlines across the nation, you might be asking yourself, "Is Maine at risk?"
Nearly a dozen train cars hauling chemicals, including a carcinogen, vinyl chloride, derailed on the evening of February 3 in Ohio. Emergency crews later ignited the overturned freight to evaporate the chemicals before more seeped into the ground. A plume of smoke soon caught eyes across the nation, putting the town in the Ohio River watershed, East Palestine, on the hazard map. As the soot clears, communities elsewhere are wondering: Could this happen here?
“These are things that you lay in bed thinking at night, 'What are we going to do if?'" York County Fire Administrator Chief Roger Hooper said.
Hooper oversees the York County state-regional response "Team 6," under the umbrella of the Maine Emergency Management Agency.
“Something the size of East Palestine happening here in Maine would take time to get the resources together, but we have the resources,” Hooper said.
The resources range from firefighters trained on the "technician level" for hazmat to the Department of Environmental Protection's yellow truck that shows up on the scene, like they did for a derailment this past October in Orneville.
“I think it serves as a pretty good example of how a response would go," Maine DEP Response Services Director Chris Hopper said.
When someone calls 911, dispatch directs that emergency to the Incident Command System. Hopper picks up the line.
“There’s a lot of phone calls and coordination that’s going on early," Hopper said.
The calls go to federal agencies like the EPA, EMA and local crews like Hooper's. They also contact the rail company that has found itself on its side. In Orneville's case, it was Canadian Pacific.
“After some of the folks from Canadian Pacific started showing up, there was a discussion of what was on the train," Hopper said. "And we realized pretty rapidly what we were dealing with was three cars of liquid asphalt that had derailed.”
It turns out the liquid asphalt was not the problem, but the sideways locomotive’s diesel fuel: hundreds of gallons washed into the creek.
“I think, probably, our number one hazard is fuels," Hooper said.
Responders are not trained to be one-track-minded. They say no two hazmat incidents are the same, but the specialty team is dwindling, and that is what scares the chief.
“The workforce shortage has created some new challenges for us in recruitment, training and readiness. It’s quite concerning," Hooper said.
New tools, however, are coming to first responders' aid to work with what they've got.
“One of the things that came out of Orneville was there’s a program called 'AskRail' that is good to have," Hopper said. "It gives visibility as to what is out there on the rails.”
The DEP says in the past decade, 17 trains have derailed in Maine, everything from cars still in the rail yard to what happened in Orneville.
The Maine Department of Transportation has been working with the railroads to improve safety and strengthen the infrastructure by the year 2026.
“Comparing what could happen in Maine to what happened in East Palestine, Ohio. I don’t think we would see anything like that because those types of chemicals that come through," Hooper said.
"Since we saw reports of the derailment, my wife made mention of it and it made us wonder, 'What is on those trains that do go by?'" Portland resident Peter Jacques said.
Most of the year, the Maine Department of Transportation says trains move more products than people on the tracks, but state law limits the public's right to know what is on them and when that freight crosses in their own backyards.
The I-Team asked Portland residents, with train tracks in their backyard, if they knew of this law.
"Ooh, I did not know that, No, I did not know that," Portland resident Keith Denecker said.
"Was not aware of that at all," Jacques said. "So, that makes me question even more so."
In 2015, two years after the Lac-Mégantic rail disaster, a representative and once train conductor, Mike Shaw, introduced the legislation. He tells the I-Team he still stands by it today. He says the law counters terrorism by keeping the details from people who could use those hazards to do harm.
Former Governor Paul LePage attempted to veto the bill back then.
"I am not at all comfortable shielding this information from the Maine citizens that may be placed in harm’s way by these transports," LePage said.
Fortunately, first responders are not totally in the dark.
"We undertook a study to find out what chemicals travel from and through Maine," York County EMA Director Art Cleaves said.
Cleaves once led the state's Emergency Response Commission, and more than 20 years ago started trying to fill in the blanks when it comes to hazardous cargo.
"Everything that comes into Maine by ground, truck or rail, comes through York County," Hooper said.
The commission drew up a "Commodities Flow Study," which gives people some idea of what is carried through Maine.
Hooper says the big three chemicals are chlorine gas, ammonia and formaldehyde.
The freight railroads leave out the specifics, and under that state law, any records they do provide to first responders are shielded from public view.
When the I-Team tried contacting the two largest companies operating in Maine, CSX and Canadian Pacific, both cited security concerns for not sharing that data with us or the rest of the state.
"They don't have to report those to the state of Maine, but our commodities flow study gave us that information so we know what it is," Cleaves said. "We don't necessarily know the quantity, how many rail cars, how many truckloads pass through and back."
"I'd like to know what's on these trains," Transportation Committee Chair Sen. Ben Chipman said. "I think we should look at overturning that law possibly. Something we should definitely consider. I also think we should look at the staffing on trains as well."