CHICAGO — Local environmental groups are planning a protest Thursday evening on the Southwest Side to call attention to what they call "bomb trains" regularly moving through the city.
The protest is part of a national week of action to highlight the issue of increased transportation of crude oil by trains. Thursday's event — hosted by Frack Free Illinois, Little Village Environmental Justice Organization and others — will commemorate the one-year anniversary of an oil tanker derailment and explosion in Quebec that killed 47 people.
A record volume of Bakken crude oil is now being shipped by rail across the country due to a boom in North Dakota's oil industry, and some regulators have said the oil is more flammable and more dangerous to ship, causing explosions in places like Alabama, Virginia and North Dakota.
Local activists, like Frack Free Illinois' Lora Chamberlain, say they do not want the crude oil moving through their neighborhoods.
"I think we should be concerned about this, and I think the governor and the mayor should notify everyone within the potential impact zone ... so we don't end up like the poor people in Quebec," Chamberlain said.
Chamberlain and others are planning to protest near 18th Street and Western Avenue at the Western Avenue terminal for the BNSF line. The BNSF is one of eight railroads to transport Bakken crude oil in Illinois.
As one of the primary transportation hubs in the country, Chicago undoubtedly sees Bakken crude move along its rails, but just how much makes its way through the city is not immediately clear.
In May, the U.S. Department of Transportation issued an emergency order requiring all railroads that transport more than 1 million gallons of Bakken oil through a state to notify that state of the anticipated routes and frequency of oil shipments.
Eight railroads — BNSF, Norfolk Southern, Alton & Southern, Union Pacific, Canadian Pacific, CN, CSX and Indiana Harbor Belt — submitted reports on their shipments of Bakken crude oil to the state, according to a spokeswoman for the Illinois Emergency Management Agency.
Chamberlain said activists picked the BNSF line for Thursday's protest because the line runs along Pilsen and Little Village, "very highly populated areas."
"We've seen those black tank cars [carrying Bakken oil] at that terminal on Western," Chamberlain claimed. "That is too close to people's homes."
A spokesman for BNSF declined to comment, saying safely transporting Bakken crude oil is an industrywide issue.
Holly Arthur, a spokeswoman for the Washington D.C.-based Association of American Railroads, said the railroad industry had been taking steps in the last year to make shipping Bakken crude oil as safe as possible.
"From an operational standpoint, railroads have done a lot," Arthur said. "The federal government has issued a number of emergency orders the railroads are complying with, and I think that's what the community should be aware of."
Arthur noted precautions like a 30-mph speed limit in "high-threat urban areas" like Chicago when transporting the crude oil, as well as additional inspections on rail lines used by trains carrying the oil. Arthur said she could not comment specifically on Chicago because she was not familiar with how exactly Bakken crude is moved in and around the city.
"Just like everywhere, we'd want the people of Chicago to know that railroads are doing all they can to keep the movement of crude oil as safe as possible," Arthur said.
But for Chicago residents, that begins with knowing exactly where and how much Bakken crude is moving through the city, said Lora Chamberlain, and it also includes alerting affected residents of what emergency plans are in place.
Chamberlain said the coalition of environmental groups behind Thursday's protest plan to push for a ban on shipping Bakken oil in the city, but the first step is alerting residents to the issue.
"This has to be dealt with immediately," she said.
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