DNREC: The left hand and the right hand

There is a brief, bland reference in today's News Journal to the Delaware City train derailment story I got from Jen Wallace of the Green Party yesterday:

Also sought is a clarification of rules for reporting problems, mishaps or spills at the refinery’s new crude-by-rail loading and unloading operation. Four cars derailed during a weekend accident at the new facility late last month, but no public notice was required because none of the tanks leaked.

Now we could go into the rationalizations provided by PBF Energy or the criticism of their behavior by the Sierra Club and other environmental groups, but that's too easy.

Instead, let's go to DNREC.

Yesterday Jen Wallace let me know, well before noon, that Ravi Rangan of DNREC had confirmed that the derailment had occurred, and also confirmed other details, such as PBF Energy being unprepared to get the cars back on the tracks without waiting hours for equipment from out of state.

So, curious, I called the DNREC Public Information number and asked about the incident, just to see what the spin would be.

The spin: "I haven't heard anything about that. I'll have to check and get back to you."

Still waiting.

With a little luck, the DNREC Public Information Officer might actually read today's newspaper and call me up to tell me about the derailment that, for some strange reason, she couldn't find out about even after other DNREC officials had already publicly confirmed it.

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