The Daily Bulletin Archive

Charley Bowman, co-chair of the Western New York Peace Center's Environmental Justice Task Force, and Stephen Vermette, associate professor of geography and planning at Buffalo State, will present "The Risks Imposed by Bomb Trains on Humans and Their Environment" on Tuesday, November 15, at 7:00 p.m. in Classroom Building A209.

Large volumes of Bakken crude oil—a more flammable crude, and therefore more dangerous to ship by rail—are transported from North Dakota to U.S. coastal regions by rail tanker cars every day, and these trains are derailing at an alarming rate. In July 2013, one Bakken crude oil train derailed and exploded in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, killing 47 people. The rail industry has called these rail tankers "bomb trains."

Bomb trains travel daily through Buffalo, New York, eastward to the Port of Albany and south along the Hudson River to refineries in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. This talk will demonstrate the air dispersion of toxic chemicals from a simulated derailment and fire in Buffalo.

This presentation is part of the Western New York Chapter of the American Meteorological Society’s fall 2016 seminar series, hosted by the Buffalo State Geography and Planning Department's meteorology and climatology program. Parking permits and directions for off-campus guests will be available in Lot I-37.