(The Oregonian posted the following article by Wendy Owen on its website on February 17.)
PORTLAND, Ore. — An equipment failure on an idling train locomotive Sunday caused as much as 2,000 gallons of diesel fuel to spill near the Columbia River community of Rowena.
Crews contained the oil along the railroad tracks, which are at least 500 feet from the Columbia River. No oil entered a nearby culvert leading to the river, said Norm Siler, Union Pacific manager of environmental field operations.
“The amount was pretty scary,” Siler said, but the site had a natural berm that kept the oil from spreading.
The train had been idling for 48 hours near waterfront homes about seven miles west of The Dalles when the conductor reported the spill at 5:30 p.m. Sunday. The cleanup began about three hours later when RMCAT, a Union Pacific environmental contractor, arrived from Portland, Siler said.
Workers had recovered about 2,500 gallons of oil and water, which was washed from tracks and the roadbed, and vacuumed into tanker trucks at the site by Monday afternoon. On-scene coordinator Michael Renz of the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality monitored the cleanup and said he expected most of the oil to be recovered by Monday night.