(The Sioux Falls Argus Leader posted the following article on its website on March 16.)
PIERRE, S.D. — Five cars of a Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern Railroad train hauling bentonite clay from the Belle Fourche area to Chicago derailed in Pierre a couple of blocks south of the state Capitol building overnight Wednesday.
The derailment was blamed on a broken rail. Kevin Schieffer, head of DM&E, said he anticipated that the track would be clear and in operation again by today. “It was a significant derailment but not a huge one,” he said.
Bentonite clay is used in products ranging from cat litter to cosmetics, he said. The derailment happened on a section of track that runs behind a football field and track. The incident was confined to railroad property, Schieffer said.
The railroad has been stymied so far in attempts to upgrade existing track and build new track to the coalfields of Wyoming. A federal agency recently turned down the railroad’s request for a loan. Schieffer said the derailment “is the perfect example of why we need that project. That track through there is 100 years old. It’s worn out, and it needs to be replaced.”
Meanwhile, the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., which has been the most prominent critic of the DM&E’s plan to reconstruct its line, bought two properties in Rochester near the railroad’s tracks. A Mayo spokesman says the clinic has no immediate uses for the properties – but the purchases indicate the health system is moving closer to the tracks with the expectation that train traffic won’t increase any time soon.
The Rochester Post Bulletin reported the Mayo Clinic purchased the properties for $3.6 million.