Sandwich Academy Grant Township, Maine –
Maine’s Environmental Protection Agency has tasked Pacific Kansas City, Canada, with cleanup after a freight train derailment and fire.
Commissioner Melanie Royzim on Thursday sent a letter to the railroad saying the company’s good faith efforts had failed to meet officials’ expectations regarding its response and timing “to effectively mitigate its impact on the environment and public health.” sent to
Two concerns were the failure to remove the two railcars containing the hazardous materials from the scene in a timely manner, and the failure to remove the diesel fuel from the locomotive’s saddle tanks, resulting in a diesel fuel spill. An estimated 500 gallons (1,895 liters) of fuel was spilled.
Three locomotives and six trains carrying lumber and electrical wiring derailed in Somerset County on Saturday, leaving three people in hospital.
Canadian Pacific Kansas City, a merger of Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern, was completed the day before the derailment and is leading the cleanup, rescue and repairs.
Derailments and railroad safety have become a national concern since a fire on February 3 in the Norfolk Southern suburb of East Palestine, Ohio.
The Maine derailment occurred near Lockwood, a town of about 300 people on Moosehead Lake about 90 miles (140 kilometers) northwest of Bangor.
