NEW SCOTLAND — Local resident Alana Fiero created a video about the dangers of crude oil trains to combine her passions for the environment with her belief in the power of the media to “promote environmental sustainability,” she told The Enterprise.

“Videos are a great way…for people to really learn about an issue,” she told The Enterprise.

Fiero, 19, is a sophomore at Pennsylvania State University majoring in media studies in the College of Communications, and minoring in environmental inquiry. She completed an internship this summer with the not-for-profit group Environmental Advocates of New York in Albany.

“Environmental Advocates was great,” Fiero said. “They pushed me outside of my comfort zone. I was happy to take on a project that was big.”

She also wrote in an email, “My time at Environmental Advocates inspired me to become more interested in civic engagement. Before interning at the organization, I did not have much of an interest in politics, but this experience really connected the dots for me between the environment, media, and political matters. Creating videos has always been a passion of mine, but in order to do that successfully, I must be well informed.”

Fiero produced a video that highlighted Voorheesville’s vulnerability should a crude oil train derail in the village. Up to 70 trains per day, each carrying 100 cars, travel through the village each day, she notes in the video that can be seen at eany.org. Many of the cars traveling through Voorheesville do contain volatile Bakken crude oil, according to Environmental Advocates, which quoted a United Stated Department of Transportation report estimating an average of 10 oil-train derailments per year for the next 20 years.

Fiero set up recording locations and conducted interviews with Albany County Legislator Herbert W. Reilly, Voorheesville Mayor Robert Conway, and Quiet Zone Committee member Steven Schreiber — whose work tracking an increase in trains in the village to help reduce noise pollution lends to Fiero’s description of expanded danger within the village limits.

Fiero was joined by journalist and videographer Max Oppen, of Environmental Advocates. Their footage explores recent oil-train derailments in Canada, Virginia, and Illinois that killed dozens of people and leveled towns.

According to graphics used in Fiero’s video, a crude oil train accident could damage a radius that extends beyond Voorheesville’s elementary school, firehouse, and commercial center.

“I wanted to raise awareness, to put a face to the name. People hear ‘derailment here, derailment there.’ I wanted to really personalize the issue,” she said.

In her video, Fiero stressed how state and federal requirements have not kept up with current train traffic safety, and how local government is left with little recourse.  In the end, she calls on viewers to reduce dependency on crude oil.

“It was fun,” she said of making the video. “I was glad to be able to interview” the mayor and legislator.

Her father, Alan Fiero, is a science teacher at Farnsworth Middle School who has won numerous grants to teach his students about ecology and Pine Bush restoration, and who founded and has continued to support the butterfly house project in Guilderland.

“He probably inspired me to…understand that we need to value our planet and our resources,” Fiero said.

Alana Fiero also credited a course she had as a high school student at Voorheesville. “My senior year I had a independent study in Media Productions with the tech teacher at Clayton A. Bouton, Kyle Turski,” she said. “During the course of the independent study, I made a short documentary video about concussions that was shown to the school staff.

“This process also required me to set up/film interviews and edit video content related to the dangers of concussions and how they impacted students in school. I think the experience actually prepared me very well for the creation of the oil train video with Environmental Advocates.”

Fiero’s mother, Kathy, a teacher, works at Voorheesville Elementary School, where she shared information about her daughter’s most recent video. Many at the school told Mrs. Fiero that they had not known the village faced a potential danger, Alana Fiero said.

“That makes me feel good,” she said. “Local people are now aware of what an issue it is.

“I do love to spread awareness through video,” she concluded.