Washington, DC Commuters In Close Proximity To Toxic Chemicals

WASHINGTON - JULY 30: A train goes by transporting freight and tankers of toxic chemicals a few blocks from the US Capitol Building near the South East Freeway July 30, 2004 in Washington, DC. The rail corridor is owned by CSX Transportation of Jacksonville, Florida, and normally carries freight and tankers of toxic chemicals through the US Capitol along the east coast corridor. Worst case industry scenarios prepared to comply with federal environmental laws estimate that a catastrophic rupture of a 90-ton tanker car of toxic liquid chlorine would create a plume of toxic gas that would kill or injure people up to 14 miles away - a radius that encompasses 2.4 million people in the DC area - depending on weather conditions. The CSX freight trains carry hundreds of tons of chlorine, ammonia, hydrogen fluoride and hydrochloric and phosphoric acids every year. Passenger trains and freight trains share the same tracks in and out of the District of Columbia. According to Rick Hind of the DC office of Greenpeace, graffiti artists enter the surrounding tunnels to paint or write showing how accessible the trains carrying the dangerous cargo are. A chief scientist at the US Naval Research Laboratories in Washington said that in the first 30 minutes following a terrorist attack rupturing a tank car with chlorine, people could die of pulmonary edema at the rate of 100 per second. Cargo rolls along a rail line that crosses the Potomac River at the 14th Street Bridge, runs south of the Mall and turns northeast. At their closest point, the rails come within four blocks of the US Capitol. The DC city council is trying to pass legislation that would force rail companies carrying toxic chemicals to by-pass Washington, DC. (Photo by Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images)