Crews seek to contain environmental peril in the wake of derailment that spilled some 5000 gallons of diesel fuel into the Connecticut river.
The derailment of the New England Central freight train spilled six cars and a locomotive into a thaw-swollen Connecticut river early yesterday morning. �.Officials say containing what could be some 2000 gallons of diesel fuel is their top priority. And though high water and heavy current have complicated the deployment of cross river containment booms, Chuck Knox of the state department of environmental services says the booms surrounding the downed locomotive have so far been fairly successful. Knox admits however, that assessing the damage is guesswork until it�s better known how much fuel actually entered the Connecticut river.
Whether all that diesel fuel got into the river or not is uncertain�.and probably we won�t know until the locomotive is removed in several days by the machinery that�s en route to so the job..
Knox also notes that the environmental peril doesn�t end with the spilled fuel The train�s freight was largely road salt and limestone slurry � both would are toxic to river life. And while Knox says neither spilled directly into the river he says an unknown quantity of road salt has seeped into surrounding wetlands. Despite that � and early reports of dead fish and waterfowl, Knox says several factors may make the spill less harmful than it might have been otherwise.
Diesel fuel does float on the surface of the water instead of diving down to the bottom of the river and covering organisms�.Also there is a silver lining from this type of spill in that the river water is particularly cold this time of year and because of that the metabolism of the aquatic organisms are a lot slower than is the case during warmer seasons.
Meanwhile, Westminster Vermont Deputy Fire chief Cole Streeter says the clean �up will continue around the clock. �That effort includes several private sanitation firms and state and local angencies from both New Hampshire and Vermont. Streeter says surrounding communities have more than pitched in.
We�ve stripped all area towns as far as hazardous waste equipment�.booms and all that. We�re trying right now to get some stuff back to area towns so if they have some kind of problem we won�t be stripped out completely.
Streeter says crews have been re-railing the easily righted cars , and clearing the banks to hasten the train�s ultimate removal. But Streeter adds, the time table for actually getting the cars out of the river is far from clear.
No one has been able to give a good answer on that �.They�ve got probably half the equipment here for them to do what they need to do.
Investigation into the cause of the derailment continues. Initial reports are that the spring thaw loosened the track bed. New England Central Railroad has yet to issue an official statement on the incident, and was non-responsive to several requests for comment.
