Train carrying hazardous materials derails and bridge collapses into Montana river
Category: News & Politics
Via: perrie-halpern • last year • 14 commentsBy: Erick Mendoza and Dennis Romero
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
A train carrying hazardous materials derailed and a bridge collapsed into a southern Montana river Saturday, sending rail cars into the water and prompting concerns about contamination.
Some of those fears may have been allayed by evening as rail officials said two cars known to be carrying sodium hydro sulfate, which can burn, irritate and cause shortness of breath, had not entered the Yellowstone River below the failed bridge that used to span the waterway.
There was no release of hazardous materials from those particular railcars, said Andy Garland, spokesperson for Montana Rail Link.
But an unspecified number of other cars containing molten sulfur and asphalt had been "compromised," he said in a statement.
Several train cars are immersed in the Yellowstone River after a bridge collapse near Columbus, Mont., on Saturday, June 24, 2023. (AP Photo/Matthew Brown)Matthew Brown / AP
Officials would continue to monitor the derailment site, he said.
No injuries were reported, officials said.
As many as eight cars had derailed, Columbus, Montana, Fire Chief Rich Cowger told NBC affiliate KULR of Billings.
Billings said it would shut down city water system intakes fed by the Yellowstone River for the time any pollutant would need to pass and end up downstream, according to a statement.
Billings, a city of nearly 110,000 people, has a clean supply of drinking water in its system, including storage tanks that are full, it said.
Laurel, Montana, suspended its intake from the river and temporarily shut down its water treatment plant Saturday morning, but a few hours later it reconnected its supply and restarted treatment, officials said in a statement.
Laurel officials visited the derailment site and investigated the water system, according to the statement.
Water treatment plants in Yellowstone County were working as normal as officials monitored the river for any signs of contaminants, county officials said in a statement.
"At this time there have been no reported negative impacts to Yellowstone County," its government said in an afternoon statement.
The derailment and bridge collapse happened about 6 a.m. near the community of Reed Point, according to officials in Stillwater County, which abuts Yellowstone County. The bridge over the Yellowstone River was described as a rail bridge in the statement Saturday.
The National Transportation Safety Board said in a statement Saturday evening that it is sending an investigative team to the derailment site. The Federal Railroad Administration is leading the inquiry, the NTSB said.
It was not immediately clear if the collapse or derailment happened first or what caused either.
Asphalt contains carcinogens and has been linked to some forms of cancer. Molten sulfur can cause serous thermal burns upon contact and will form toxic and flammable gases when reacting to hydrocarbon, a compound at the heart of fossil fuels.
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Is it possible for both political parties to cooperate in order to actually do something meaningful about America's ageing infrastructure problems, or will it take away too much from military requirements, including Ukraine?
As much as I agree with you about the US wasting far too much money on Ukraine (with little or no oversite on how the money is being used); and that infrastructure is nothing more than a political talking point with the parties (the Democrats last bill on infrastructure was more about green energy and climate change; than about actually repairing roads and bridges. Your angst is misplaced in this case.
The rail lines that own and operate the tracks are responsible for the placing, maintaining, and improving all tracks and infrastructure being used by them.
In this case it was the Montana Rail Link. Which I had never heard of before this. There are a lot of smaller train companies still in existence that still run just a limited intrastate route- or just a couple of lines within a state (like the FECR).
So place your blame with them for not ensuring the the bridge and tracks were maintained.
Oh, okay, as long as there is someone to blame everything will be hunkey-dorey.
Perhaps the Federal Railroad Administration investigation will tell us more about what went wrong. The major responsibility usually is with the owner.
Where did I state everything was OK?
I stated the truth. The maintenance of tracks and supporting infrastructure is the responsibility of the Railroad that runs/operates/owns the tracks.
If the oversite rules and penalties for such failures aren't good enough- then the federal government needs to get involved.
Canada has derailments as well; some of them even worse than this one. Don't see you bitching about them.
The blame goes to a new operating practice called Precision Scheduled Railroading that Wall Street has forced on railroads, PSR is 3 lies in one, it is not Precision, not schedules nor is it proper railroading, Hedge Fund managers are trying to force railroads to turn operating ratios under 60%, Capacity, crews, maintenance, safety, inspections, and service are reduced,
BNSF sold Montana Rail Link years ago and is now taking them back over, not sure when. BNSF has been less afflicted by PSR pressure as Warren Buffet controls BNSF.
PSR pressure is root cause of Norfolk Southern's mess in Palestine, Ohio
That is the short quick summary of what is causing railroad problems in the USA, I have to go somewhere now, maybe more discussion on this later.
Holy shit!!! All I had been reading about was derailments in America. I just searched derailments in Canada and had no idea there were so many. Maybe, since China is blamed for whatever anyone can think up, we should blame the Chinese railroad workers who originally laid the tracks.
You are exactly right about this, charger. Some of the RRs have embraced it and tried to go to the one engineer on a train a mile or longer. They pulled back from that after the disaster in Ohio.
I’m think that although Canada had an early diplomatic relationship with China, it’s been on the decline for several decades now. I’ve never seen Canadian RR infrastructure listed as one of them.
Actually a memorial to the Chinese Railroad Workers was erected next to the Skydome in Toronto to commemorate the Chinese workers, especially the 700 who died during the construction,
BNSF will take it over Jan 1, 2024 according to Trainorders (a paid railfan site). MRL was part of a BNSF predecessor Northern Pacific and spun off
So....what came first, the derailment or the collapse.?
That's actually a good question to ask in the event that the RR company is not responsible for the construction and maintenance of the bridge. Think I'll watch The Bridge on the River Kwai again.
Reports on usually reliable railfan sites suggest the bridge piers were already partly undermined and eroded and high water and the train's weight and motion started the collapse, derailing the train and cars getting sideways pulled it down.
MRL is responsible for inspection and maintenance of it's track and bridges.