"Toxic trains" and terrorism
With mounting concern about the potential for terrorists to target in-transit chlorine, we've blogged about the potential for on-site chlorination. Others are promoting a switch in disinfectants, suggesting replacing less costly chlorine with bleach or UV light, the Center for American Progress among them warned of "toxic trains and terrorists:"
Each year, thousands of tons of highly toxic chlorine gas travel by rail in the United States to drinking water and wastewater treatment facilities and other industries. These massive railcars traverse some 300,000 miles of freight railways, passing through almost all major American cities and towns. A rupture of one of these railcars could release a dense, lethal plume for miles downwind, potentially killing or injuring thousands of people.
The Department of Homeland Security and numerous security experts have repeatedly warned that terrorists could use industrial chemicals as improvised weapons of mass destruction-and indeed, terrorists recently attacked and blew up several trucks carrying chlorine in Iraq. In this respect, railcars of chlorine gas represent a distinct national security vulnerability. Yet Congress and the Bush administration have not acted to eliminate unnecessary uses of chlorine gas railcars even where undeniably affordable and practical alternatives exist.
We think on-site chlorination needs a closer look . Water utilities know how to handle chlorine. It works and it's the least costly option. On-site chlorination removes the threat of some rocket attack on a railcar or tanker truck.
