It’s tough to miss the trains hauling crude oil out of the Northern Plains. They are growing more frequent by the day, mile-long processions of black tank cars that rumble through wheat fields and towns, along rivers and national parks. As common as they have become across the U.S. and Canada, officials in dozens of towns and cities where the oil trains travel say they are concerned with the possibility of a major derailment, spill or explosion, while their level of preparation varies widely. Stoking those fears was the July crash of a crude train from the Bakken oil patch in Lac Megantic, Quebec – not far from the Maine border – that killed 47 people. A Nov. 8 train derailment in rural Alabama where several oil cars exploded reinforced them. “It’s a grave concern,” said Dan Sietsema, the emergency coordinator in […]