Montana’s oversight of railroad safety falls short at a time when crude-oil train traffic from the Bakken region, already high, is only expected to increase, a new audit found. Montana has no active rail-safety plan and employs only two inspectors to cover the state, the Montana Legislative Audit Division report released Wednesday said. In addition, there is a lack of statewide emergency planning and hazardous-material response capability should an oil spill occur, the report said. That is a potentially precarious situation with a new crude-oil transfer station in North Dakota coming online that should boost oil traffic crossing Montana from about 10 trains a week to as many as 15 cars a week. About 20% of Montanans live in an evacuation zone for an oil-train derailment, which is within a half-mile of a rail line, the report said. Two of the agencies criticized in the report said they […]