Today's Most Popular Video
Dec 18, 2008 9:54 pm US/Central
Tankers Leaking Liquid Fertilizer Into Mississippi
DRESBACH, Minn. (AP) ―
-
-
Two Canadian-Pacific freight trains collided in southeastern Minnesota early Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2008, derailing 40 cars, some of which plunged into the Mississippi River
CBS
Two railroad cars overturned during a Wednesday train collision were leaking liquid fertilizer into the Mississippi River Thursday.
The tankers slid down an embankment near the river overnight and had leaked about 25,000 gallons into the river by Thursday afternoon, said Cathy Rofshus, a spokeswoman with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. The fertilizer was diluted, and officials were not too concerned yet, she said.
"So far the water quality team is reporting no fish kill," Rofshus said. "There is no public risk at this time."
A locomotive that slid into the river Wednesday has leaked diesel fuel into the water, but it's not known how much, she added. A spokesman for Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. said a vacuum was being used to skim the oil, and the company hoped to lift the locomotive to land Saturday.
A second locomotive was leaking diesel fuel on land, authorities said.
Wednesday's collision in southeast Minnesota occurred when one Canadian Pacific freight train's locomotive hit the middle of a second Canadian Pacific train at a switching station designed to let two trains pass each other, railroad spokesman Mike LoVecchio said in an interview from Calgary, Alberta. The sequence of events that led to the crash remains under investigation, he said.
A third tanker containing liquid fertilizer also was leaking Thursday, but LoVecchio said the material was contained in a berm built around the railcar and collected while still on land. The fertilizer contains small amounts of ammonia and nitrogen mixed with water, said Bob Bilder, Winona County's emergency management director.
"It's a liquid form of what people put on their lawns," Bilder said. "Farmers get it and thin it down a little bit with water and spray it on fields."
Repairs on the track at the site were completed by Thursday night, and the line was reopened to train traffic, but with a 10 mph limit near where the derailment happened, LoVecchio said. The restoration of the track meant Amtrak service could also be restored, he said.
Canadian Pacific has had 16 accidents in the U.S. this year through September, according to online Federal Railroad Administration records. Six of them occurred in Minnesota.
Wednesday's crash near Dresbach derailed 26 cars and forced the evacuation of about 25 disabled veterans from a rest home after a propane tank at the switching station ruptured. None of the four workers on the trains were seriously injured.
LoVecchio said a train with two locomotives and 15 cars loaded with fertilizer was on the main tracks going east when it crashed into an empty car on a 93-car westbound train, which was using a siding, which is essentially a passing lane.
The siding, which has switches connecting it back to the main track, permits one train to move around another, LoVecchio said. He didn't know how fast the trains were going when they collided.
"You are talking about very heavy machinery with a lot of momentum. We are very, very happy that there were no injuries," LoVecchio said.
The Federal Railroad Administration sent three inspectors to the derailment, launching a probe that it said may take several months to complete.
(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
Man Recalls Night Friend Was Shot By Cop
Click to enlarge
Stumble It!
