America at risk

摘要

In the early hours of October 7, residents of the small Illinois town ofTiskilwa were woken by the sound of a train derailing. Anyone who slept through the initial crash did not miss the resulting explosions, as several cars carrying ethanol caught fire, sending flames hundreds of feet into the air. Fortunately, nobody appears to have been hurt in this incident. However, it is not the first rail accident involving ethanol and it is unlikely to be the last. Around three-quarters of the 13.7 billion gallons (51.8m m3) produced in the US this year will move by rail. This month's accident involved a 131-car rrain operated by Iowa Interstate Railroad from Chicago to Rock Island. Tiskilwa is about 115 miles (185 km) west of Chicago; it is situated just outside the greater Chicago area, where the map has started breaking up into the regular rural blocks that carve up the countryside all the way to the Rockies. As such, it is not beyond help when something like this happens. However, the ethanol business is not generally so urban. Much of it is located in the Midwest corn belt, where access to expert emergency response is difficult and where fire departments are mosdy staffed by local volunteers. Unlike other high-hazard businesses, ethanol production has come out of the agricultural counties of the US, where the appreciation of the risks of volatile and flammable chemicals such as ethanol is less firmly engrained.