With Freight Trains through Rockland Daily, First Responders Need all the Money They Can Get

Congresswoman Nita M. Lowey held a press conference this morning about the impact on Rockland’s emergency responders if Congress underfunds Homeland Security, particularly with the increase in freight trains carrying crude oil through the county.

Lowey, who is the ranking member on the House Appropriations Committee, met at the Palisades Center with Rockland County Legislature Chairman Alden Wolfe, Rockland County Undersheriff Robert Van Cura, Clarkstown Supervisor Alex Gromack, Sloatsburg Mayor Carl Wright, Clarkstown Police Chief Michael Sullivan and concerned parent Sarah McTasney.

“The potential damage a crude oil train derailment or accident could have on our community is catastrophic,” said Gromack. “Our emergency responders need federal funding to prepare and respond to these types of events.”

Crude-oil train derailments in the past week caused fiery explosions in West Virginia and Canada.

RELATED: Riverkeeper recently warned of the danger they pose to the Hudson Valley.

“Given that serious train accidents are happening on average of once every seven weeks, and that one rail car of crude oil contains the energy equivalent of two million sticks of dynamite, we need to act now to protect our children, our first responders, and our communities,” said McTasney. “These crude oil trains are passing right through the center of our lives and one derailment, accident, or explosion is one too many. I tell my kids that safety is non-negotiable—how can I explain to them that entire industries don’t care about it?”

Though a bipartisan group of House and Senate negotiators agreed to 2015 spending bill for DHS last year, Republicans provided only temporary funding in an effort to dismantle the President’s executive action on immigration. That funding is set to expire Feb. 27.

“Playing politics with Americans’ security is a dangerous game,” said Lowey (Westchester-Rockland). “Recent and very public rail accidents have highlighted how an inadequate Homeland Security funding bill would have serious consequences for our local emergency personnel who would respond to a catastrophic railway accident. It is time to end this charade, and pass the clean DHS funding bill that I introduced last week in the House of Representatives.”

Without a full-year funding bill, Rockland will not receive more than the $1 million that was expected to be awarded here in 2015, said Lowey. She and a colleague have introduced a clean DHS funding bill that provides funds for a full year, is free of poison-pill immigration riders, and has 192 cosponsors.

Photo (L-R): Rockland County Police Chief William Barbera, Assistant to the Chair of the Rockland County Legislature Darcy Casteleiro, concerned parent Sarah McTasney, Congresswoman Nita Lowey, Clarkstown Supervisor Alex Gromack, Rockland County Undersheriff Robert Van Cura (front), Clarkstown Police Captain Anthony Ovchinnikof (back), Clarkstown Police Chief Michael Sullivan. (Photo credit: Office of Congresswoman Nita Lowey)