(The following story by Michael Neibauer appeared on the D.C. Examiner website on September 12.)
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Rail company CSX Corp. has agreed to pay the D.C. government more than $650,000 in response to a train derailment in November that sent six freight cars loaded with 100 tons of coal each into the Anacostia River.
A consent decree signed Sept. 4 calls for CSX to pay the District $50,000 in civil penalties, $60,561.79 to reimburse the city for its emergency response, $50,000 to restore the natural resources damaged by the derailment and $500,000 toward an environmental project “to benefit the Anacostia River ecosystem.”
The Nov. 9 incident occurred after a CSX operator failed to properly secure the brakes on an 89-car freight train being moved within the Benning Road rail yard. The train coasted more than a quarter mile to the Anacostia bridge, which had been closed a year for structural problems.
The bridge collapsed under the weight of the train.
Nine cars derailed and six crashed into the water, sending 600 tons of coal into the Anacostia. No one was injured, but there was concern for some environmental damage.
Under the decree, CSX “denies any liability to the District.” The agreement also credits CSX for responding to the derailment “expeditiously” and for cooperating fully “in undertaking comprehensive, costly and effective response actions.”
The D.C. Department of the Environment is soliciting public comment on the decree, which is expected to be posted on the agency’s Web site today.