Community Leaders Talk Rail Safety in Duluth

DULUTH - "Governor Dayton has been traveling the state to try to find a solution to rail dangers and Tuesday he stopped in Duluth to focus on concerns throughout the Northland."Rail delays have cause major problems for companies like NewPage and Cliffs Natural Resources.Terry Fedor, Executive Vice President of U.S. Iron Ore Operations for Cliffs Natural Resources, says they've dealt with a lack of trains for their shipments and late deliveries."We need good, reliable, on–time rail transport to and from our facilities in order to be able meet our obligations to our customers this year, not to shut Midwestern steel mills around the great lakes down," said Fedor.Fedor tells FOX 21 he's met with CN and BNSF and have come up with a temporary solution."We've decided to truck pellets from Hibbing to Allouez," said Fedor.Another major concern, is the lack of funding for fire departments receive to be able to respond to any emergencies that could happen."We no longer have a response team. The closest response team for us currently is St. Paul," said Erik Jankila, acting Chief for Hibbing Fire Department. Jankila says, There's a large amount of rail and truck traffic carrying chemicals through their area. "Could be, if there was a crash or derailment, of significant impact to the population in the area that it derails, and we don't have the funding for the equipment to deal with that," explained Jankila.A "need to know" law was suggested so emergency response teams would be able to respond to a potential accident appropriately."These chemicals, each one may require a different response, so you come in with the one response and it's something else then you could even make the situation worse unintentionally," said Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton.Dayton says he plans to go head-to-head with rail companies during the next legislative session."There's no reason they shouldn't be telling local officials and state officials what's going through our communities, what's going through our state," Dayton said.Governor Dayton privately met with Minnesota Power following the meeting Tuesday and is having a conference call with BNSF later this week.