The Alberton Community Coalition for Environmental Health (ACCEH) is kicking off a petition campaign to promote the prevention of railroad accidents, and the catastrophic chemical releases created by these accidents. Our goal is to ensure that every railroad community in Montana has access to the facts about the quantity, frequency, and class of hazardous substances that are passing through our backyards, near our schools, and through our pristine forests every day. The best way to prevent another catastrophic chemical spill is through a united effort demanding improved railroad safety, enforcement and compliance of federal railroad standards, combined with the facts defining exactly what the risk is to live, vacation, or attend school near the tracks. 

The following statistics are a disgrace to Montana and the basis for the ACCEH campaign: 

• The largest mixed chemical release and the 2nd largest chlorine spill in our nation's railroad history occurred right here in rural Montana in 1996 - on rail worn below federal standards. 

• More toxic chemicals are released per person in Montana than anywhere else in the nation. (Source, Congressional Quarterly 1998 state fact finder.) 

• 25,000 hazardous waste filled railcars pass through Montana annually -The Last Best Place. 

• In 1995 & 1996, Montana Rail Link (MRL) was ranked by the FRA as having the 2nd highest accident record for Class C Railroads. An average of 5.3 accidents each month along 654.5 miles of track.

 

We will present our petitions to Montana Rail Link,Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad, Senators Baucus and Burns,  Congressman Hill, and the FRA, on August 2nd, 1998, the twenty year anniversary of the order to evacuate Love Canal, NY.  

That evacuation order by the Health Department was a long overdue response to health complaints ranging from asthma to seizures and birth defects --  linked to chlorinated phenols buried in their neighborhood by the Hooker Chemical Company thirty five years earlier in 1953 -- this was the first residential toxic exposure to rock this nation. 

These same chemicals- chlorinated phenols- approximately 133 tons worth, were released into the soil and air in rural Montana in 1996 by Montana Rail Link. 

 

 

Chemicals with well documented long term health effects to people and the environment. 
Chemicals that can bioaccumulate in our bodies. 
Chemicals that still make Love Canal an uninhabitable community. 
 

ACCEH recently sponsored Montana evacuee and hot zone resident, Lucinda Hodges, to travel to Washington D.C. and attend the Love Canal 20th Anniversary Events to honor that community's courage in a battle for justice twenty years long ... a battle that continues today. 

The Mother's of Love Canal changed not only their families lives for the better...they have changed the course of environmental policy across this country, and are a role model for all people struggling for freedom from toxic chemical exposure. They have earned our nations respect for their triumph in the face of tremendous hardship. 

This year the Center of Health Environment and Justice is remembering the families of Love Canal with a national campaign beginning August 2nd, linking grassroots community efforts like ACCEH's with hundreds of other towns, just like ours, fighting for a chemical free environment.  

We urge you to join us in this effort to maintain and improve the quality of life here in Montana and the entire nation.  

Your signature can ensure the Last Best Place  remains just that. 

Please sign our petition, electronically or print it out, gather signatures and return it to: 
ACCEH 
Box 8733 
Missoula, MT 59807 

Spokane Review story on the Alberton spill

Follow- up

ATSDR - Bad Science in Alberton, Montana FREE Health Evaluations...You Get What You Pay For

Federal Hearing to be held Saturday, November 11th, 2000, Investigating the 1996 Montana Rail Link Train Derailment Chemical Spill

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