Union Pacific Railroad recently conducted an emergency response drill in Texas with Jefferson County first responders and ExxonMobil’s Beaumont polyethylene plant, sharing information and best practices as part of a mutual aid emergency response drill.
ExxonMobil’s Rail Operations team learn about Union Pacific’s derailment response process in Beaumont.
The effort was designed to help ExxonMobil’s Rail Operations team and local first responders understand how Union Pacific would safely respond to a hazardous materials (hazmat) derailment on its main line, outside of ExxonMobil’s fence line.
Union Pacific’s David O’Hara, general director-Operating Practices, leveraged a tabletop scenario to lead the educational discussion.
“Working through the tabletop scenario ensures all portions of the derailment response process are understood and carried out by mutual aid responders,” O’Hara said.
Union Pacific is a leader in hazmat transportation safety, securement and response, training more than 19,000 first responders in the last four years alone. Shipping hazmat by rail is the safest mode of land transportation – according to the Association of American Railroads, railroads deliver hazmat safely 99.9% of the time.
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Based outside Houston, ExxonMobil is one of the largest integrated fuels, lubricants and chemical companies in the world. The company’s Beaumont polyethylene plant produces the key ingredient of many everyday consumer products.
“If there’s an incident, just as with our peers in the Golden Triangle, we are ready to provide mutual aid if called upon,” said Bryan Boaz, rail planning and operations field supervisor for ExxonMobil. “David did a fantastic job setting the table for what a main line derailment looks like, giving our emergency responders an important perspective of Union Pacific’s process and procedure.”
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