Mobilize Sonoma is a group of local volunteers working together on issues that affect the long-term quality of life of the residents and businesses of the southern Sonoma Valley in California.
When rail tankers explode, a blazing ball of gas (called a “bleve”) travels 4 feet above the ground for up to a mile, incinerating everything in its path. Liquid petroleum products escape into nearby waterways and into marshlands and aquifers. Foams used for firefighting wipe out the sensitive organisms on which the surrounding wildlife depends.
A wasteland is left behind. Trees, businesses, power lines, houses, barns, wineries, firehouses, highways, public service buildings – all gone
Just such a danger has been created at the entrance to the Sonoma Valley in California.
160 tanker cars that, when fully loaded, can contain up to 5.4 million gallons of highly toxic and inflammable Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG) are now parked in a mile long hazardous-materials storage yard that is operated by Northwest Railroad Inc. in the marshlands south of the intersection of Highway 121 and 8th Street East.
One spark, one derailment, one accidental leak is all it takes for a catastrophe to occur. Haven’t we seen enough in the fires of last October that devastated the region to not let it happen again?
Join with Mobilize Sonoma to get rid of the tankers in Schellville. To make your voice heard, click here.
