(The following report by Eileen Mozinski appeared on the Telegraph Herald website on September 11.)
MARQUETTE, Iowa — Several cars that derailed and fell into Bloody Run Creek last week have been removed successfully and officials are saying significant damage to the aquatic life in the area was avoided.
The cars from the Iowa, Chicago and Eastern Railroad Corp. train were in the Marquette and Monona areas of Clayton County when they derailed last Thursday.
Department of Natural Resources and railroad officials spent the weekend cleaning up the area and checking for fish kills and contamination. They were relieved to find that there wasn’t any of either to report.
“It’s a closed situation on our end,” said Chad Kehrli, an environmental specialist with the Iowa DNR who was at the creek Monday scanning multiple checkpoints for dead fish.
Initially, DNR officials primarily were concerned that the spilled material would kill the fish by depressing oxygen levels in the water.
“We weren’t sure what it would do; we knew it would have a potential to have impact on the fisheries,” said Kehrli, who thought that there had not been a spill in the Bloody Run since the 1990s.
But Kehrli said the amount of soybean meal that actually reached the stream was “minimal” compared to the material still contained in the cars, thanks in part to the latches that held on the rail cars.
A railroad environmentalist for IC&E did not return a call for comment Monday, but Kehrli said he couldn’t think of a way that the railroad could completely prevent such incidents on a long-established track.
Nearby resident Tim Mason, a consistent advocate for the protection of the wildlife in the area, said the maintenance of the track and cars are solely the responsibility of the railroad when their structures hug environmental areas.
“It’s one of those corridors, ancient old railroad corridors, that runs parallel to a wild stream,” he said. “They need to keep their heads up and be very careful about it. There’s a lot of dangerous cargo besides soybeans that come down.”