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Track to trouble? Rail safety concerns rise with prospects for new oil car traffic

Track to trouble? Rail safety concerns rise with prospects for new oil car traffic

Before this month, train safety in general, not to mention specifically when it comes to the prospect of 35, two-mile-long trains loaded with crude oil traveling through the Grand Valley each week, wasn’t much on Jessica Washkowiak’s radar.

“It’s definitely on my radar now for sure,” she said this week.

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Jessica Washkowski, who at 3526 Front Street, stands in front of the burned out remains of a rail car and railroad ties near Front Street that is directly in front of her home.

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Ray K. ErKu/Post Independent

U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse points to an empty oil barrel, which was placed beside a podium, during a press conference in Glenwood Canyon on April 8. Neguse is one of several Colorado lawmakers opposed to a new shipping rail line being built in Utah that would transport oil east through Colorado.

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Jessica Washkowiak, who lives on Front Street in Palisade, stands in front of the burned out remains of a rail car and railroad ties that caught fire on May 2 and forced her and her family to evacuate their home. That fire, and the concern that materials could spill, is troubling for those who live along the railroad — especially as a proposal for large-scale shipping of oil produced in Utah is being considered.

Christopher Tomlinson/ The Daily Sentinel

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Christopher Tomlinson

Front Street and the railroad track at about 3525 Front Street.

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Photos by Christopher Tomlinson/The Daily Sentinel

The trains that haul materials on the railroad tracks that run through Mesa County moved more than 500 million gallons of hazardous material in 2021, according to a commodity flow study provided to the Mesa County emergency services director.

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