Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, July 10, 1993 TAG: 9307100264
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CATHRYN McCUE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Lane's house sits near the Norfolk Southern Corp. tracks, and every so often, a train hauling coal from the mines in Southwest Virginia to the ports of Norfolk will have a "blowout."
That's NS terminology for when the weather and other conditions combine to kick up clouds of powdery black dust from the coal heaps in the rail cars.
The dust settles on Lane's house, her yard, her kids if they're outside. "Clothes, furniture, the draperies, kids' toys and books . . . this gets on everything," Lane said. "We dare not leave a window open or a door open."
Lane described her experiences Friday at a public hearing before a joint subcommittee of state senators and delegates. The group was established several years ago to study coal dust emissions after citizens began complaining.
NS officials opened Friday's hearing with a video of an experiment they're conducting in Giles County. Since in late May, the railroad has been spraying almost every coal car with water.
"It looks like an overgrown carwash," but it's a highly sophisticated system, said J.S. Fox Jr., general manager of the company's Eastern region.
The system uses computers and sensors to trigger six faucets, which spray about 30 gallons of water on each loaded car, he said.
Rail officials aren't sure what the experiment may yield but hope to have a full report for the subcommittee by the end of this year, Fox said.
"That's a very impressive system," subcommittee chairman Sen. Elliot Schewel, D-Lynchburg, said. "If it works."
So far, spraying the coal with water has not dampened the controversy.
"Overall, we still have a problem in Altavista," said Town Manager Stan Goldsmith. In recent conversations with residents and businesses along the NS tracks in this Campbell County town - about 120 miles from the spray station - Goldsmith learned that some people still get dust on their furniture, he said.
One Altavista businessman brought his own video, taken from his company's security camera, which points toward the track.
"You can barely see the train, right here, as it passes by," said Bob Allen, manager of safety and health at Ross Laboratories. "You can actually lose sight of the vehicles as they enter the dust cloud," he said, pointing at the smoky gray blob on the screen.
Marianna Fillmore, whose Montgomery County house has been getting "dusted" for years and who has led the fight to stop coal dust emissions, brought her two daughters to the hearing, saying it is a family issue.
"There are people out there who have this problem who you never hear from," because they're too old, or too afraid to cross a big corporation such as NS, Fillmore said.
Sen. Madison Marye, D-Shawsville, said he, too, was frustrated by the railroad's initial arrogance when the problem surfaced a few years ago, and by subsequent delays in action.
"It seems it would behoove [coal producers] to find immediately some way of containing this coal on the train," Marye said.
In a worst-case scenario, Fox said, depending on the weather and type of coal, as much as 500 pounds of coal can escape from each car on the 400-mile trip from the coal mines to the port.
"It is highly unpredictable," he said.
They have learned a few things after more than a year of study by a Charlottesville-based consultant. Dry, hot weather seems to generate more dust, and some kinds of coal produce more dust than others, depending on how much it has been processed. Also, the amount of coal piled in a rail car doesn't necessarily govern the amount of dust blowing off it.
But coal producers are, indeed, beginning to see the potential for savings in controlling coal dust, Fox said.
As for charges that NS is dragging its feet, he said that no other railroad in the United States has a coal dust-control program, so it took about a year to develop the computers for the spraying system.
Also, NS officials had to travel to Alberta, Canada, to look at a coal dust system in operation. Canada's railroads use a chemical "crusting" agent, such as a latex foam, to seal the coal piles.
But for now, the method isn't viable for NS, Fox said. The system is expensive, the sealant tends to crack, and there's the legal problem of NS spraying chemicals on the coal, which it does not own.
However, Fox said, NS will begin some testing of chemical sealants next week.
Committee chairman Schewel said the group might set another public hearing in the Hampton Roads area, where people are complaining of dust clouds swirling off coal as it is unloaded from the cars.
Fox said the railroad, hoping to avoid burdensome legislative mandates, intends to have a self-imposed dust-control plan by 1994 that will satisfy the legislators.
NS has set up a toll-free number for people to call if they witness a dust emission incident: 800-621-0772.
Memo: ***CORRECTION***