Oil Removal Solutions Blog

Emission control and waste management among top priorities for railroad industry today

On February 28, 1827, the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad became the first U.S. railway chartered for commercial transport of passengers and freight. 

Key facts about the first U.S. railway include:

• The Tom Thumb steam engine was designed by Peter Cooper
• The first railroad track was only 13 miles long
• Charles Carroll, the last surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence, laid the first stone when construction on the track began 

(Source: Library of Congress)

Fast-forward 188 years. 

Here is a snapshot of what the railroad industry looks like today:

• 140,000 miles of railroad track
• 21 regional and 510 local railroads
• 221,000 jobs
• The rail network accounts for approximately 40 percent of U.S. freight moved by ton-miles (the length freight travels).

(Source: U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Railroad Administration)

When the sky cries, that’s a natural phenomenon. But when Nature’s pure water mixes with various types of oil and hydraulic fluids or other contaminants, the result is a man-made problem.

Commonly called stormwater runoff, rainwater will flow wherever it wants once it hits Earth. And this characteristic is what makes water troublesome wherever it encounters oil  – in heavy equipment yards, scrap yards, truck and train terminals, oil and gas operations, shipping docks and the like. Water from various types of wash-down operations will behave the same way.