Business & Tech

Alexandria Tied to Tracks When it Comes to Norfolk Southern

City Council has many questions and little recourse when it comes to railroad company's request to expand operations.

Alexandria City Council members lamented Norfolk Southern's request to double the number of rail cars offloaded per day at its ethanol transloading facility in the West End at Tuesday night’s meeting at City Hall.

Earlier this year, Norfolk Southern filed for a permit with the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality to increase offloading from the current 14 rail cars to 30 cars per day. Increased emissions under the plan mean Norfolk Southern needs an air quality permit to expand the scale of operations at the facility at 1000 S. Van Dorn St.

Council unanimously passed a resolution Tuesday expressing its opposition to the issuance of a permit because of “increased air emissions” and requesting an informational meeting and separate public hearing about the railroad’s request.

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The facility has long been an issue for the city, from noisy late-night trains to occasional ethanol spills, including a 100-gallon spill in February.

“We have had things happen there,” Councilman Paul Smedberg said. “Technically they’ve been classified as minor. But if they’re doubling operations, do we also have to worry about a regional response if something could happen?”

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Alexandria Fire Chief Adam Thiel said he would need the technical details about Norfolk Southern's plans before he could evaluate his department's ability to respond to potential emergencies. 

The facility is located about a mile from Samuel W. Tucker Elementary School.

Mayor Bill Euille, who expressed his displeasure with the railroad’s failure to communicate with the city about the permit request earlier this month, said the city is not asking Norfolk Southern to shutter its facility, but instead asking for more dialogue on how to address issues pertaining to the environment, safety and noise.

“We don’t want to do something just for the sake of doing something,” Euille said. “We want to do something to address these issues.”

The VDEQ permit only addresses the air quality issues, however. Euille suggested meeting with new Norfolk Southern President James Squires, who was appointed Tuesday, about the noise and safety concerns. City Manager Rashad Young planned to meet with the company’s train master to address the late-night trains.

Euille said he talked with U.S. Rep. Jim Moran about the permit request and the former Alexandria mayor said he was willing to work with Virginia’s two U.S. Senators on the issue. Alexandria’s Richmond delegation has also been contacted.

Councilman Tim Lovain, a transportation lobbyist, said he was “pessimistic” on the chances of any issues being resolved.   

“I work a lot on freight transportation,” he said. “One of my clients was negotiating with a freight railroad and bemoaning that a guy actually said ‘I don’t know where you got your authority from. I got mine from Abraham Lincoln.’ So the federal law from all the way back to the mid-19th century has backed up the railroads.”

Read more:

  • Mayor ‘Pissed Off’ With Norfolk Southern Over Lack of Communication
  • Norfolk Southern Asks for Ethanol Offloading Increase
  • Ethanol Spill at Norfolk Southern Transloading Facility
  • Norfolk Southern to Notify Fire Department First as Part of Emergency Response Plan
  • Norfolk Southern Fails to Notify Fire Department of Spill


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