Ethanol spill possibility leaves Alexandria residents on edge

ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- An ethanol transfer facility near Cameron Station has neighbors worried and members of Congress calling for an investigation.

"There are 25,000 people who live within the evacuation area," says Mindy Lyle, who lives in one of the homes closest to the facility.

The facility just off Van Dorn Street is within a few hundred feet of homes and is about 600 feet from Samuel W. Tucker Elementary school.

"We are worried about it catching fire, we are worried about a spill," says Lyle, who is also a member of the Cameron Station Civic Association board.

Rep. Jim Moran and Sen. John Warner have both asked the Homeland Security Department to investigate the threat posed by the facility.

The transfer facility has been operating since April. Plans for it have been in the works since 2006.

Alexandria City Council members, were alerted in May that the had opened. They had previously opposed the facility, saying it was too close to neighborhoods. They are vowing to close the facility.

"This operation presents a serious threat to our residents, businesses, and the people who travel our streets and the nearby highways and the City will do everything that can be done to shut this facility down," says Mayor Bill Euille.

The facility was able to open because the federal Surface Transportation Board, a federal regulatory agency, ruled in February that federal law supercedes local laws when ethanol transfer facilities are part of the railroad's normal operations.

At the facility, the ethanol comes in on Norfolk Southern rail cars and is transferred to tanker trucks, each holding 29,000-gallons.

"If there is a spill, it's not going to float. It's going to mix into the run, which will go into the Potomac, which goes straight into the Chesapeake Bay," Lyle says, who is worried about a lack of emergency plans.

Norfolk Southern says everything is safe.

The city does have an safety preparedness plan. Firefighters raised concerns and began planning for emergency situations in 2007.

Fire Chief Adam Thiel recently presented the plan to the City Council. The evacuation area, should there ever be a large spill, encompasses the elementary school, the nearby townhouses and the Van Dorn Metro Station.

Additionally, the city has established an eight-member Norfolk Southern Ethanol Transloading Community Monitoring Group to monitor and keep the community informed about issues related to it.

"This community group is essential for discussing and monitoring activities at the Norfolk Southern facility," Euille said.

The city wants the railway to cease its operations, and the railway company is suing the city for trying to limit the operation of the facility to daylight hours.

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