In the days before Norfolk Southern began operating an ethanol loading facility on the city’s West End, railroad officials tried to contact the Alexandria Fire Department several times to no avail. Voice-mail messages went unreturned even though city officials were aware the railroad was days away from opening a facility where thousands of gallons of hazardous materials would be loaded from rail cars to tanker trucks every week. According to court documents, city records, interviews with officials involved in the dispute and information obtained under a Freedom of Information Act request, top-ranking officials made a series of missteps in the months before Norfolk Southern began its ethanol "transloading" station in April.

"I wish I could say this was an April Fool’s joke but it is not," wrote Chief Fire Marshal Robert Rodriguez in an April 1 e-mail to senior city officials. "We received a voice mail message this morning from Kelley Minniehan … of RSI Logistics. He wants to put keys in their Knox Box at the NS site."

By the time city officials got around to returning the calls, it was too late. Modifications had already been made to the facility in preparation for RSI Logistics to operate the "transloading" operation at the Norfolk Southern property, and the new fire hydrants at the site had already been hooked up to the city water line. The "Knox Box" allowing firefighters access to the hazardous material had already been installed. And liquid ethanol was already on its way from the Midwest. Yet nobody seemed to question the city’s ability to stop the operation using its special-use permitting process until hours before the class 3 flammable liquid began arriving less than 300 feet from residents of Cameron Station.

"We are to do nothing but watch until further advised," wrote Assistant Fire Marshal Russell Furr in an April 9 e-mail to Deputy Fire Marshal Jim Sullivan.

THAT SAME DAY, the ethanol transloading operation began at the Van Dorn Yard. Yet the mayor and City Council members would not know that the hazardous materials were being transferred behind Tucker Elementary School until weeks later. It wasn’t until April 30 that City Manager Jim Hartmann ordered a document be drafted to inform the city’s elected leaders. That memorandum, distributed on May 15, initiated a firestorm of charges and countercharges. Last month, Hartmann authorized an $86,000 appropriation to hire four consultants who conducted 36 staff interviews in August and early September.

"The 90-minute interviews were personal and probing," Hartmann wrote in a Sept. 9 memorandum. "The design was to seek staff insights to either validate or challenge my earlier perceptions."

The four consultants are expected to issue recommendations within the month, yet Cameron Station residents say their report will not provide a satisfactory conclusion. They want to know how the Van Dorn Yard situation could have been so terribly mismanaged at City Hall, and the Cameron Station Civic Association has called for "an investigation by an independent investigator outside city government." The rationale behind hiring such an investigator was outlined in an Aug. 11 letter to Mayor William Euille, and several Cameron Station residents appeared at Saturday’s public hearing to advocate for the inquiry. Council members are expected to make a decision at their Sept. 23 legislative session.

"What we’re looking for is someone who could act more like an inspector general than a team of consultants who were hired by the city manager," said Joe Bennett, vice president of the Cameron Station Civic Association. "On several occasions, there were signals that should have triggered action. They should have notified council and notified the community or even trying to initiate some action on their own to stop it from happening."

NORFOLK SOUTHERN has operated in Alexandria for more than a century, and its Van Dorn Yard has traditionally been an industrial area of the city. Yet the West End has been changing over the last decade, and now a number of residential developments are located there. In 2000, the city’s largest elementary school was constructed within 100 feet of its switching yard next to an asphalt plant. Nevertheless, Norfolk Southern expressed a desire to have a contractor operate a transloading facility there as early as the summer of 2006.

"They are installing a new Ethanol Transfer facility on Metro Road (across from Virginia paving)," wrote Engineering Supervisor Gregg Fields on June 20, 2006. "They want to be sure they are complying with any City requirements and would like to submit a site plan and fire line locations for your review."

City officials initially seized on a strategy of denying the railroad the ability to intensify its use of the property by requiring a "special-use permit." Yet railroad lawyers for the Fortune 500 company argued that they had a "by right" ability to begin operations. Each side remained committed to its strategy as Norfolk Southern moved forward with installing specialized equipment in preparation for the new transloading station. During a November 2007 on-site meeting between Norfolk Southern representatives and city officials, the railroad explained they intended to open the facility in April 2008. Although these developments were on the agenda for a Local Emergency Planning Committee meeting, City Council members were still unaware of what was happening on the West End.

"FYI, you want to get on top of this one," wrote Emergency Management Coordinator Mark Penn in a Nov. 30 e-mail to Emergency Services Coordinator Charlie McRorie. "Might be the first time City Council members hear about it!"

Yet the two members of City Council did not attend appear to attend that meeting of the committee. Meanwhile, the Surface Transportation Board was about to issue an important ruling in a New York case that would have a drastic influence on how city officials would deal with Norfolk Southern. In that case, the town of Babylon, N.Y., on Long Island, filed a declaratory order that would allow the local government to regulate an ethanol operation owned by New York and Atlantic Railway and operated by Coastal Distribution. On Feb. 1, the board issued a ruling granting the declaratory order because the railroad had no involvement in the operations at the facility, which the board ruled was not "an integral part" of the railroad’s provision of transportation by a "rail carrier." Yet the language in the ruling strengthened the ability of railroads to preempt local governments as long as a railroad’s contractor is acting as an agent of the railroad, according to an April 4 e-mail from City Attorney Ignacio Pessoa.

"We’re now way behind the planning/operations curve on this deal," responded Fire Department Chief Adam Thiel later that day. "I want to be clear … we do not have the capacity to deal with a significant event at this ‘facility,’ nor does that capacity presently exist within our mutual-aid system."

While city officials were hammering out the legal implications of the Babylon ruling, Norfolk Southern was finalizing preparations to initiate operations at Van Dorn Yard. In early April, Norfolk Southern and RSI officials tried several times to call the Alexandria Fire Department on several occasions to arrange delivery of the facility’s keys so that public-safety personnel would have 24-hour access to the facility.

"For some time, the City’s fire department ignored the calls and declined delivery of the keys," wrote railroad officials in a filing with the Surface Transportation Board. "Unbeknownst to Norfolk Southern at the time, in early 2008, the city gave strict instructions to cut off communications with Norfolk Southern."

FOR SEVEN WEEKS after the ethanol transloading operation began on April 9, Norfolk Southern moved the hazardous materials from rail cars to tanker trucks at the Van Dorn Yard even though little or no safety precautions existed to guard against a potential fire or explosion. Specialized firefighting equipment didn’t arrive until May, when City Council members were finally informed about the new facility. During a tense three hour discussion on May 27, the elected leaders lashed out alternatively at city staff and railroad officials.

"I want us to explore all the options, even if that means going to court and getting an injunction, and I don’t care if it embarrasses us in the national press as it winds its way all the way up to the United States Supreme Court," Euille said during the May 27 City Council meeting. "We are going to do everything we can to cease operations, shut you down and get you out of the city."

Since then, each side has waged its own legal fight. The city filed a petition with the Surface Transportation Board seeking a declaratory order finding that the ethanol transloading facility operated by RSI on property owned by Norfolk Southern does not constitute "transportation by rail carrier." A decision in favor of the city’s position by federal regulators would give City Hall regulatory authority over the operation of hazardous materials at the Van Dorn Yard site.

"Norfolk Southern’s cries of political animus are red herrings that have no place in these proceedings," wrote city officials in one filing to the federal regulatory board. "The City has a strong interest in regulating the transloading operation because it involves ethanol, a Class 3 flammable liquid, in close proximity to homes, a school and a park."

Meanwhile, Norfolk Southern has filed its own lawsuit in federal court to challenge the city’s haul route permit, which limits use of the facility, hours of operation, number of trucks on a given day and route that can be taken to transport the hazardous materials. Although Norfolk Southern never applied for the permit, city officials issued one unilaterally on June 3 — sparking the dispute that has now made its way to the courtroom of Judge James Cacheris. The railroad is arguing that the permit was issued in violation of the Federal Railroad Safety Act, the Hazardous Materials Act and the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution.

According to court documents filed in the Eastern District of Virginia, Norfolk Southern is arguing that the haul-route permit constitutes "an implied authority to shut the facility and other areas of the Yard down, the ultimate regulatory control."

AS CITY OFFICIALS and West End residents await a ruling by the Surface Transportation Board and Judge Cacheris, movement has been building behind the Cameron Station Civic Association’s request for an independent inquiry into the city’s actions. Already, Vice Mayor Del Pepper and Councilman Ludwig Gaines have announced their support for the proposal. When City Council members formally take up the proposal on Tuesday, the item is certain to receive a great deal of attention.

"There is a problem at City Hall," said Cameron Station Civic Association President Ingrid Sanden during Saturday’s public hearing. "Whether it is a problem of incompetence, negligence, communications, misunderstanding, bad management, poor judgment, or some of all of these, I don’t know. But the point is, you don’t know either. This is why we need an independent inquiry."