(The Southern Illinoisan posted the following story by Christi Mathis on its website on March 29.)
PERRY COUNTY, Ill. — The emergency cleanup phase at the site of February’s Canadian National Railway/Illinois Central train derailment in Tamaroa is complete, so the offices of Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan and Perry County State’s Attorney David Stanton signed off Friday on a court-approved interim order with the railroad company for a continued cleanup and monitoring plan.
Meanwhile, railroad officials said they continue to settle claims with local residents and businesses. The company has paid $329,729.59 in claims by 1,136 Tamaroa area residents and $117,158.41 to 74 local businesses for a total payout of $446,888 as of March 20, said Jack Burke, assistant vice president for United States Public Affairs for Canadian National Railway/Illinois Central.
Burke said those totals don’t include compensation to any government agencies because he doesn’t have payout totals yet for those expenses.
Sixteen cars of a 100-car train derailed Feb. 9 in Tamaroa. Several of the cars, some carrying hazardous chemicals, overturned, sending a cloud of toxic vapor into the air.
The damaged train cars contained volatile and/or carcinogenic chemicals including hydrochloric acid, vinyl chloride, methanol and methanol/formaldehyde mixtures. An estimated 1,000 people from the Tamaroa area had to be evacuated.
By Feb. 28 the railroad “had removed 8,000 tons of contaminated or potentially contaminated soil and rail ballasts,” Burke said. The initial cleanup also included removal of all of the damaged and undamaged rail cars and monitoring with hundreds of thousands of air quality readings. In addition, air was sampled inside and out at 128 homes and eight businesses with no contamination found, Burke said.
“We’ve complied with all the terms of the previous agreement and have frequently gone beyond the terms,” Burke said.
Stanton said the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency has monitored the emergency phase of the cleanup to ensure everything was done properly and that the agency has also authorized the order for the new long-term cleanup and monitoring plan.
“The EPA is happy, I can tell you that,” Stanton said.
The order calls for the railroad to conduct a site investigation to determine any residual contamination. The investigation will include collection of soil and groundwater samples, installing groundwater monitoring wells, and creating within 30 days a field sampling and analysis plan as well as a health and safety plan. There will be soil borings and many soil and water samples taken. If any problems are found, the agreement requires the railroad to correct them. The railroad will also pay for any related costs incurred by the IEPA.
Failure to comply with any part of the order will result in fines of $250 per violation per day for the first 30 days, with the fine doubling thereafter.
The cause of the derailment that displaced many residents for nearly a week hasn’t been determined but investigators are looking at damaged track as a likely cause.