Rail Official Defends Response to Accidents : Emergencies: Southern Pacific spokesman disputes charges that it failed to act quickly in two derailments that caused toxic spills.

SIMI VALLEY —  A Southern Pacific railroad official said Wednesday that second-guessing by critics of last July’s train accidents at Seacliff in Ventura County and at Dunsmuir in Northern California will not alter the fact that the railroad and local agencies responded to the mishaps quickly and professionally.

“There’s a lot of Monday morning quarterbacking that goes on after these incidents,” Herby L. Bart, director of Southern Pacific’s emergency response program, told a conference called by the Ventura County Transportation Commission to ask questions about the accidents.

Jim Dantona, a member of the Ventura County commission who chaired the meeting, said its purpose was “not to point fingers, assign blame or demand retribution. We are here to ask questions, seek solutions and make recommendations.”

But almost as soon as the meeting was called to order in the Simi Valley City Hall, questions with contentious overtones were directed at railroad representatives, particularly those from San Francisco-based Southern Pacific.

Bart deflected several of them by declaring that the railroad violated no federal laws bearing on the accidents, both of which triggered chemical spills.

In the case of the Seacliff derailment, Bart disputed Dantona’s assertion that there was a lengthy delay in beginning the toxic cleanup because the train’s chemical manifest could not be immediately deciphered.

“It (the manifest) was furnished within 10 minutes of the occurrence” to fire officials, he said.

During the hearing, Ventura County Supervisor John K. Flynn, a member of the panel, disclosed that the county this week billed Southern Pacific $572,104.47, representing the full cost of containing the accident.

The bill, he said, was based on the claims of several county agencies, including the Ventura County Fire Department, the Sheriff’s Department, the Environmental Health Department and others.

Additionally, Flynn said, Southern Pacific was sent a second bill this week for $144,636.76, representing claims of other jurisdictions stemming from the Seacliff accident. Included were the cities of Ventura, Santa Barbara, Carpinteria and Montecito, and Los Angeles and Kern counties.

During a lunch break, Bart said Southern Pacific would pay the agency claims in a timely manner.

The July 28 derailment of 12 cars in the Ventura County coastal town of Seacliff did not cause serious injuries. But it triggered the evacuation of hundreds of residents, disrupted Amtrak train service and closed a 10-mile stretch of U.S. 101.

It was the second derailment of a Southern Pacific train that month. On July 14, a tank car spilled a pesticide that fouled 45 miles of the Sacramento River.

Among the most critical remarks were those from Assemblyman Jack O’Connell (D-Carpinteria), who alleged that Southern Pacific failed to act quickly in the immediate aftermath of the Seacliff accident and during the cleanup operation.

“From the beginning, Southern Pacific failed to cooperatively participate in the response and cleanup activities at the site,” he told the panel.

“The final insult,” O’Connell said, “is the fact that Southern Pacific has yet to pay up to 90% of the claims made by residents and business in the area for losses they suffered due to the spill.”

Bart did not respond to the lawmaker’s testimony. But during the lunch break, he said O’Connell’s remarks about the railroad’s lack of cooperation were not true.