(The following story by Claire Taylor appeared on The Advertiser website on May 22.)
LAFAYETTE, La. — The cause of Saturday’s train derailment may not be released to the public for months, but cleanup should be completed by Friday, said Joseph Faust, public affairs director with BNSF Railway.
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Five 40-yard dump trucks of soil have been removed from the site of the derailment where some 10,000 gallons of hydrochloric acid spilled. The soil was taken to a site in Livonia that is permitted to accept such waste.
“The next step is to make the area look like it did prior to May 17,” Faust said.
That involves trucking in yards of clean soil. The process should be completed by Friday and no further monitoring of air or soil is scheduled, he said.
Fifteen homes near the derailment site that were tested for the presence of hydrochloric acid showed “negative or zero” residuals, Faust said.
A BNSF team of investigators and independent testers are looking into the cause of the derailment and will submit a report to the Federal Railroad Administration, possibly in a few weeks, he said. But that report will not be released to the public at that time.
Warren Flautau, public affairs specialist with the FRA, said the report by field personnel will go through several layers of review within FRA. The process can take months, but the final version is made public.
Faust said he was almost certain speed was not a factor in the derailment.
Six rail cars jumped their tracks early Saturday morning beneath the Ambassador Caffery Parkway overpass near Cameron Street. A one-mile section of Lafayette around the derailment was evacuated because of the hydrochloric acid spill. The acid was neutralized with lime.
The rail cars were uprighted. Faust was unsure if they were still at the BNSF switch yard on Walker Road, but they have been declared safe.
“They are absolutely no danger to the community,” he said.
More than 2,000 claims for reimbursement by residents evacuated because of the derailment have been processed by the company, Faust said.
BNSF presented a $25,000 check on Wednesday to the Acadiana Chapter of the American Red Cross, which provided shelter and food to evacuees and emergency workers. Executive Vice President Roger Nober said the company also will reimburse the Red Cross for expenses it incurred in responding to the derailment.