MN Stat § 115E.042 (2021)
2021 Minnesota Statutes|Chapters 114C - 116I — Environmental Protection|Chapter 115E — Oil And Hazardous Substance Discharge Preparedness|Section 115E.042 — Preparedness And Response For Certain Railroads.

115E.042 PREPAREDNESS AND RESPONSE FOR CERTAIN RAILROADS. Subdivision 1. Application. In addition to the requirements of section 115E.04, a person who owns or operates railroad car rolling stock transporting a unit train must comply with this section. Subd. 2. Training. (a) Each railroad must offer training to each fire department having jurisdiction along the route of unit trains. Initial training under this subdivision must be offered to each fire department by June 30, 2016, and refresher training must be offered to each fire department at least once every three years thereafter. (b) The training must address the general hazards of oil and hazardous substances, techniques to assess hazards to the environment and to the safety of responders and the public, factors an incident commander must consider in determining whether to attempt to suppress a fire or to evacuate the public and emergency responders from an area, and other strategies for initial response by local emergency responders. The training must include suggested protocol or practices for local responders to safely accomplish these tasks. Subd. 3. Coordination. Beginning June 30, 2015, each railroad must communicate at least annually with each county or city emergency manager, safety representatives of railroad employees governed by the Railway Labor Act, and a senior fire department officer of each fire department having jurisdiction along the route of a unit train, to ensure coordination of emergency response activities between the railroad and local responders. Subd. 4. Response capabilities; time limits. (a) Following confirmation of a discharge, a railroad must deliver and deploy sufficient equipment and trained personnel to contain and recover discharged oil or hazardous substances and to protect the environment and public safety. (b) Within one hour of confirmation of a discharge, a railroad must provide a qualified company employee to advise the incident commander. The employee may be made available by telephone, and must be authorized to deploy all necessary response resources of the railroad. (c) Within three hours of confirmation of a discharge, a railroad must be capable of delivering monitoring equipment and a trained operator to assist in protection of responder and public safety. A plan to ensure delivery of monitoring equipment and an operator to a discharge site must be provided each year to the commissioner of public safety. (d) Within three hours of confirmation of a discharge, a railroad must provide qualified personnel at a discharge site to assess the discharge and to advise the incident commander. (e) A railroad must be capable of deploying containment boom from land across sewer outfalls, creeks, ditches, and other places where oil or hazardous substances may drain, in order to contain leaked material before it reaches those resources. The arrangement to provide containment boom and staff may be made by: (1) training and caching equipment with local jurisdictions; (2) training and caching equipment with a fire mutual-aid group; (3) means of an industry cooperative or mutual-aid group; (4) deployment of a contractor; (5) deployment of a response organization under state contract; or (6) other dependable means acceptable to the Pollution Control Agency. (f) Each arrangement under paragraph (e) must be confirmed each year. Each arrangement must be tested by drill at least once every five years. (g) Within eight hours of confirmation of a discharge, a railroad must be capable of delivering and deploying containment boom, boats, oil recovery equipment, trained staff, and all other materials needed to provide: (1) on-site containment and recovery of a volume of oil equal to ten percent of the calculated worst case discharge at any location along the route; and (2) protection of listed sensitive areas and potable water intakes within one mile of a discharge site and within eight hours of water travel time downstream in any river or stream that the right-of-way intersects. (h) Within 60 hours of confirmation of a discharge, a railroad must be capable of delivering and deploying additional containment boom, boats, oil recovery equipment, trained staff, and all other materials needed to provide containment and recovery of a worst case discharge and to protect listed sensitive areas and potable water intakes at any location along the route. Subd. 5. Railroad drills. Each railroad must conduct at least one oil containment, recovery, and sensitive area protection drill every three years, at a location and time chosen by the Pollution Control Agency, and attended by safety representatives of railroad employees governed by the Railway Labor Act. Subd. 6. Prevention and response plans. (a) By June 30, 2015, a railroad shall submit the prevention and response plan required under section 115E.04, as necessary to comply with the requirements of this section, to the commissioner of the Pollution Control Agency on a form designated by the commissioner. (b) By June 30 of every third year following a plan submission under this subdivision, a railroad must update and resubmit the prevention and response plan to the commissioner. History:   2014 c 312 art 10 s 4