Do You Live in the Danger Zone?
Click this link and enter your address to see if you live in the danger zone.
One-half mile from the tracks (in red) is considered the high risk fallout zone for black carbon diesel air pollution and the evacuation zone for oil train derailments.
One mile from the tracks (in yellow) is the potential impact zone for an oil train fire.
Many people who live near rail corridors are not even aware of the potential danger, and few communities have the equipment and training to deal with a derailment involving volatile materials.
Do You Live in an Environmental Justice Area?
An Environmental Justice Area is any Census Tract where at least 20% of the population lives in poverty and/or 30% of the population is minority.
Click this link and then enter your address in the lower left corner at the magnifying glass: 
Residents of Environmental Justice Areas are required to receive extra consideration in policy decisions to ensure that they do not disproportionately shoulder the burden of environmental hazards.
Norfolk Southern’s Pittsburgh Vertical Clearance Project impacts 24 communities along its 17-mile route. Over 112,000 people live within 1/2 mile of the tracks (described earlier as the high risk air pollution and derailment “blast” zone), and 72% of them live in Environmental Justice Areas. See Pitt School of Health Study
Poverty, racism, inequality, and stress are also cancer risk factors. It’s not right to add the dangers of rail traffic to that list.
The Rail Corridor of Pollution
The petrochemical industry’s workaround for not complying with pipeline safety standards and regulatory requirements is to transport volatile ethane gasses, and Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) by rail as a substitute “mobile pipeline” through Pittsburgh’s most densely populated and Environmental Justice Area communities. If the oil and gas lobby is successful, this will occur throughout the rest of our country.
