Posts
I normally don't mix blog and work, but thought I would share these pictures. The AP story explains what happened.
July 13, 2008 Sunday 7:45 PM GMT
Locomotives remain in Mississippi, leaking fuel
GUTTENBERG Iowa (AP) --- State officials say they're concerned about the environmental impact of four diesel locomotives still submerged in the Mississippi River and leaking oil.
Locomotives remain in Mississippi, leaking fuel
GUTTENBERG Iowa (AP) --- State officials say they're concerned about the environmental impact of four diesel locomotives still submerged in the Mississippi River and leaking oil.
The trains crashed into the river on Wednesday.
After heavy rain in the area Friday and early Saturday, further landslides are a concern, said Mike Ball, the supervisor at the Iowa Chicago and Eastern Railroad company's temporary command center in Guttenberg.
"The condition of the bluff is the primary safety issue," he said.
Ball said he could not predict when the engines would be removed from the river or when rail service would resume.
The boulder that caused Wednesday's derailment has been blasted to bits, and railroad employees have been setting off explosive charges farther up the bluff in an effort to neutralize future landslide threats.
Cleanup crews working in five boats Saturday filled three large trash containers with oil-soaked fabric, said Iowa Department of Natural Resources fisheries biologist Scott Gritters, a member of the cleanup team since Wednesday.
DNR personnel are concerned that railroad officials have been slow to remove the engines from the river and slow to respond to the environmental threat.
While the engines remained in the river Saturday, the railroad had moved in a barge hauling a crane large enough to lift a locomotive and dispatched crews to help with the removal of oil-soaked fabric from containment devices along Bluff Slough, where the derailment occurred.
The locomotives plunged into the river about 3 a.m. Wednesday after a huge boulder, dislodged by recent heavy rains, tore up a section of track. Two railroad employees suffered minor injuries.
The locomotives plunged into the river about 3 a.m. Wednesday after a huge boulder, dislodged by recent heavy rains, tore up a section of track. Two railroad employees suffered minor injuries.
Environmental and safety issues are at the top of IC&Es agenda, Ball said.
The crews periodically placed and retrieved the absorbent fabric in more than a dozen containment booms deployed in Bluff Slough.
Gritters said few dead fish or birds had been found in the area. "Were more concerned about mussels and other slower-moving aquatic life that can't get out of the way," he said. Karen Osterkamp, the DNRs northeast Iowa fisheries supervisor, said she is worried about the long-term effect of oil that cant be removed from shoreline rock and wood.
"It's not the Exxon Valdez, but you never like to see oil spilling into a national fish and wildlife refuge," Gritters said.
I find it interesting that you post this about the derailment but have yet to put up anything about the barge that broke in two after a collision on the Mississippi and dumped 400,000 gallons of oil into the river.
ReplyDeleteYou do? Why?
ReplyDeleteI got the pictures of the derailment at work and thought they were kind of cool - in a train wreck sort of way. Don't know anything about the barge bearking up.