Railroad owner responds to column's mention of spill
To the editor:
In his column in the April 28 edition of the Worcester Business Journal (“Pending chemical bills post a threat to Mass. environment, residents”) State Sen. Michael O. Moore alluded to a recent spill of about 100 gallons of a highly flammable chemical, styrene, at the Grafton and Upton Rail Yard in Upton. He credited the work of first responders and chemical safety experts in containing any damage.
I want to clarify that workers from the Grafton and Upton Railroad (G&U), all of whom are well trained for this type of incident, immediately informed appropriate local and state officials, and then professionally assisted those officials, along with technicians from Clean Harbors, to successfully clean up the spill in very short order. The state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), which was on the scene from the outset, has raised no issues regarding the response to the spill, and the railroad is working to reimburse the Town of Upton for its associated costs.
In addition to training its own workers, the G&U has donated more than $80,000 for chemical fire-suppressing foam and foam-dispensing trailers for the towns of Upton and Grafton, and to train area firefighters in the use of that foam on chemical fires. This improves local first responders' ability to effectively deal with any rail-related incident, and provides them with that same ability to respond to the more- likely scenario of accidents occurring on local streets involving trucks that carry chemicals, or at local industrial locations that use such chemicals.
Even though the railroad is federally exempt from many state and local regulations, it follows all DEP safety guidelines for the handling of the freight that goes through its yards. All of this should serve to assure Sen. Moore, other government officials and the public that the G&U transports and trans-loads all commodities it hauls with the utmost safety and care.
Jon Delli Priscoli
Owner, Grafton and Upton Railroad
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