(The following story by Bill Vidonic appeared on The Beaver County Times website on April 26.)
NEW BRIGHTON, Pa. — New Brighton Manager Larry Morley said that he can no longer smell the sweet scent of the ethanol at Big Rock Park.
“It’s noticeably better,” Morley said Thursday.
That doesn’t mean the grain alcohol has disappeared. Until the state Department of Environmental Protection rules the borough park ethanol-free, a final cleanup can’t proceed.
The park, including its namesake rock that sat along the Beaver River, was heavily damaged when Norfolk Southern Railway Co. cars plummeted from a trestle along the park on Oct. 20, 2006, and exploded. The rock was pulverized in the derailment and the following cleanup.
According to the Federal Railroad Administration Web site, a broken rail line led to the derailment.
The report did not indicate whether investigators believe the rail line broke on its own, or was tampered with.
An FRA spokesman didn’t return a phone call Friday.
A spokeswoman for the National Transportation Safety Board said Monday that the derailment is still under investigation, and that agency hasn’t issued a final report.
Norfolk Southern spokesman Rudy Husband referred questions about the report to the FRA. Morley said borough officials hadn’t been notified of the FRA report.
Nearly a half-million gallons of ethanol seeped from the railcars into the ground or into the river, according to the state Department of Environmental Protection.
Norfolk Southern installed five monitoring wells to check how much ethanol was still in the area of the derailment. Last June, DEP said ethanol was still being found in groundwater at the park, though at a very low concentration.
The railroad also removed contaminated soil from the park, replaced it with a clay material, and installed sump pumps and trenches to control rainwater runoff that might be contaminated.
Morley said that until the DEP clears the park for public use, the end where the derailment took place will still be restricted.
Morley couldn’t give a timetable as to when the park might be declared ethanol-free.
DEP spokeswoman Helen Humphries said Friday that it’s “impossible to say when” the ethanol will be gone, but that the concentration of the alcohol “has drastically decreased.”
Also, Morley said, Norfolk Southern has been moving heavy equipment in and out of that area while rail lines on the trestle are being replaced. That work should be done by the end of summer, Husband said.
Once the ethanol is gone and the trestle work is completed, Morley said, work to clean up the park and restore it to its former beauty can proceed.
Earlier, Morley said plans that had been considered included extending a walking trail through the park and making other aesthetic improvements.
Morley said previously that Norfolk Southern would pick up the costs of park repairs.
The FRA report says there was nearly $1.4 million in damage to the train, and $325,000 in damage to the railroad tracks.