Joanne Yates remembers the evening the earth quaked. “We heard a huge crash,” Yates said one day last month. “The whole place shook.” It was shortly after 6 p.m. on Oct. 6, 1997. Seven cars of a St. Lawrence & Atlantic Railroad train had derailed about 500 feet from Yates’ West Paris home. One, a tanker, was filled with 33,000 gallons of propane. Within minutes firefighters were telling Yates and about 300 of her neighbors they had to evacuate. If the gas leaked, a spark could trigger an explosion. Their homes could be leveled.

The gas didn’t leak, but it would be three days before the propane was safely transferred to another tanker; three days of fear and frustration for Yates and her family and friends.

The odds of that accident repeating today in Maine or elsewhere have dropped considerably since then, according to interviews with experts. Government statistics back up the premise. A disaster two decades ago in Bhopal, India, and the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, are two of the biggest reasons.

Nationwide, deaths resulting from transportation-related hazardous materials incidents have fallen by nearly two-thirds in the decade from 1994 to 2003, from 11 – all highway related – to four. Injuries fell from 577 10 years ago to 94 last year. In particular, rail-related accidents involving hazardous materials – hazmat – have plunged to the lowest level in years, according to U.S. Department of Transportation reports.

In Maine, the numbers over the past 10 years are less telling. Transportation-related hazmat incidents have ranged as low as 20 and as high as 43 in any given year. There’s no clear pattern of increase or decrease. One possible indicator of a decline: Barring one fatality in 2001 when a gasoline tanker flipped on the Maine Turnpike, there have been no injuries or fatalities since 1998.

Meanwhile, the shipping and moving of chemicals, gases and the like have greatly increased during that same time period. In 1993, the government estimated hazmat traffic at 500,000 daily shipments nationally. Today, the U.S. DOT pegs the number at 818,180 shipments. Add in product movements, such as when rail cars are relocated, and the number swells to 1.2 million. Tons shipped tops 8.6 million annually. Similar estimates on the state level aren’t unavailable.

Still, anecdotal evidence in Maine supports the national DOT figures, suggesting a downward trend here in hazardous materials deaths, injuries and accidents, particularly since 9-11.

Hazmat team members in central and midcoast Maine say they’ve been called out for responses far fewer times in the past two years.

MeadWestvaco hazmat team chief Scott Blaisdell said his members haven’t had to make a hazmat response “in the past 18 months to two years.” Before that, he said the team would routinely be called out once or twice a year.

Midcoast team spokesman Jim Simons said his group’s response numbers are similar.

Tannery tragedy

One of Maine’s worse hazmat disasters happened in Berwick, back on April 2, 1971, when the term “hazmat” had yet to be coined.

A hose used for transferring a bulk liquid chemical from a truck to a tannery storage tank was connected to the wrong fill line. According to a National Transportation Safety Board accident report of the incident, when the transfer began, the cargo mixed with other chemicals in an open-top holding tank in the tannery. The chemicals were incompatible. They reacted by generating toxic hydrogen sulfide gas.

Six tannery workers died after inhaling the airborne poison.

The NTSB issued new guidelines after that, governing the transfer and delivery of certain chemicals nationwide.

The substances transported on Maine roads and rail – often intended for industrial or related uses – can be deadly.

The water purifying agent chlorine, for example, can be particularly toxic. Release of as little as 1,000 parts per million of chlorine gas could wipe out a small town.

German troops used chlorine gas in April 1915 to create a four-mile breach in French trench lines during World War I. It was the first use of a poison gas in warfare.

Today chlorine is typically used by municipal water departments, as well as by paper makers and other industries as a bleaching agent. It’s also used in making solvents, automotive compounds and plastics. Related compounds are used as fumigants, rodent killers and insecticides, according to information provided by Joanne Potvin, Androscoggin County’s Emergency Management Agency director.

In large quantities chlorine is transported by rail. For general purposes, such as in water treatment, it’s transported by truck. An accident, while rare, can result in a plume of gas being spread on the wind.

Maine’s rails and highways see a wide variety of hazardous materials move daily. They’re grouped into categories such as chemicals and allied products, petroleum products, such as fuels, and the general category of “other hazmat.” The latter can run the gamut from low-level radioactive materials to biological agents.

Anything moving by truck or rail – as well as hazardous materials already in storage – could spill. But industry representatives say they have been working harder then ever to prevent such accidents.

Bhopal aftermath

Paul Turina, chief technical officer for Safe Handling Inc. in Auburn, said the manufacturers of hazardous materials began ratcheting up their safety measures following the Dec. 3, 1984, disaster in Bhopal, India. A leak of gases, including methyl isocyanite, from Union Carbide facilities there killed 2,000. Some of the 200,000 exposed to the gases continue to receive treatment for release-related health problems 20 years later.

In the aftermath, industries created and then began fine-tuning safety programs and procedures, Turina said. Over time, those have been improved and expanded upon.

Now, chemical makers such as DuPont and Dow insist on quality and safety assurances from their business partners, including companies such as Safe Handling, said Turina. Safe Handling specializes in meeting industries’ shipping needs, including the loading and custom packaging of hazardous material products. It will take products from rail cars, for example, split shipments by order and load them onto trucks for localized deliveries. The company also provides warehousing and related trucking services for businesses in northern New England and eastern Canada through its facilities in Auburn and Pittsburgh, Pa.

Hazardous materials aren’t hazardous waste, Turina points out. The materials are often very valuable commodities. Losing them is an expensive proposition.

Turina explained that in addition to the influence of Bhopal, “There’s a higher sensitivity to” hazmat safety and security today than ever before, in part due to terror concerns stemming from 9/11.

Blaisdell and Simons agreed that hazardous materials awareness again increased following the terror attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, contributing to the decline in incidents.

Twenty years ago, a hazardous materials incident would typically prompt a call to firefighters to respond as best they could. Often, lacking proper training and equipment, they would have to depend on dilution – through water or air – and a bit of luck to handle the situation. Today, Maine has 15 hazmat technician teams trained and equipped to deal with virtually any hazardous materials incident.

State and federal emergency management officials are looking to expand the numbers of hazmat responders. Recognizing that some materials could become weapons of mass destruction in the hands of terrorists, the Department of Homeland Security is doling out millions of dollars in grants to train and equip additional technicians. (See related story.)

Anyone who handles or delivers hazardous materials today has to be knowledgeable about the product and know how to deal with myriad situations, from minor spills to major accidents, Turina said. Drivers have to have hazmat license endorsements for the products they carry.

Transfer stations and depots have evolved in design to reduce the likelihood of spills, gas releases or other accidents, and equipment is kept handy to mitigate any problems. Safe Handling even has special truck-washing facilities designed to prevent materials from accidentally mixing.

Improving safety

Perhaps no where has safety become more of an issue than with the rail industry. Tom White, a spokesman for the Association of American Railroads, said the industry has seen a 59 percent decrease in the rate of hazmat releases since 1980, and a 38 percent decline since 1990.

The U.S. DOT noted 1,157 hazardous materials incidents involving railroads in 1994. That number fell to 751 in 2003.

White said railroad employees are better trained than ever before, and refresher courses have become mandatory. That’s in line with trucking industry standards required by DOT and related regulatory agencies.

The railroad industry has taken things a step further, though, White said. Rail beds and tracks are being improved more consistently.

Railroads also have partnered with industries to develop improved rail tanker cars. Those used to move fuels and gases now have specially designed couplings that prevent cars from being detached, minimizing collisions in the event of a derailment. Tanker car end caps have been hardened, valves have been relocated to safer positions, and emergency vent valves have been installed to relieve pressure if needed.

Some of the newest tank cars are designed with double hulls, he added, much like sea-going tankers. The double hull design can prevent spills in the event of a rupture.

Those kinds of improvements are fine with people like Joanne Yates.

She said she’s lived near the railroad tracks that run through West Paris for as long as she can remember. As a child, she’d sometimes wave to the men behind the controls, and other times count the passing cars.

She’d rather that than have to evacuate her home and fear for her safety with every passing train.

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