Danger on the Tracks: Oil-by-Rail's Threat to Lake Champlain and the Adirondack Region

• Liz Bourguet and Jim Murphy
• Sep 20, 2018

The 2015 Tar Sands at Our Doorstep report laid out the major threat that tar sands oil poses to the Lake Champlain region, the Adirondacks, and Vermont. If brought to the region, this viscous, tar-like heavy crude oil has the potential to destroy the health of communities and ecosystems, as it is nearly impossible to clean out of waters once inevitably spilled.

The report also addressed another severe threat to the region—the transport of oil-by-rail along aging tracks that hug Lake Champlain on their way into the Hudson River valley and down to Albany. This dangerous practice involves train oil-tank cars carrying explosive light fracked oil from the Bakken fields largely in North Dakota to the Lake Champlain region, threatening the region's communities, natural resources, and wildlife.

This report follows up Tar Sands at our Doorstep by focusing on the continued threat of oil-by-rail transport in this area.