(The following article by Bill Vidonic was posted on the Beaver County Times website on October 27.)
NEW BRIGHTON, Pa. — The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection issued a violation notice to Norfolk Southern Railway on Thursday on last week’s train derailment in New Brighton.
The notice, saying that the railroad violated the state’s Clean Streams Law, is merely procedural and does not impose any penalties or fines, according to a news release issued Thursday.
DEP spokeswoman Betsy Mallison said the railroad has been cooperative in efforts to clean up Big Rock Park and the Beaver River.
Twenty-three tanker cars hauling ethanol, a flammable grain alcohol, derailed about 10:45 p.m. Oct. 20; 16 of the cars plunged from the trestle between Beaver Falls and New Brighton and into the river and park.
Nine of the derailed cars caught fire, forcing the evacuation of more than 150 residents in both communities.
Ethanol in several of the cars burned for days, until the last flames were extinguished late Sunday.
Mallison said it hasn’t been determined how much ethanol spilled into the river, though early estimates were that the derailed cars were hauling up to 300,000 gallons of it.
The DEP said ethanol was found in the Beaver River up to 500 yards downstream of the derailment site, on the New Brighton side of the river. There were no problems with area water supplies.
Cleanup crews are still working to collect ethanol that’s seeped into the bridge abutment area, according to the DEP, and may have to clean up some of the soil at Big Rock Park.
The park will remain closed because it’s been turned into a salvage yard, with the wrecked tankers laid out along the river. Work to cut up and remove the wreckage could take weeks, Norfolk Southern officials said earlier this week.
The National Transportation Safety Board is continuing to investigate the derailment and said a final report could take months.