(The following story by Sarita Chourey appeared on the Bluffton Today website on March 11, 2010.)
COLUMBIA, S.C. — The Norfolk Southern Railway Co. must make a series of environmental improvements to the Graniteville area and pay a $4 million penalty, according to federal court records released Monday.
Five years ago, nine people were killed and more than 250 were sent to ahospital when a Norfolk Southern freight train carrying chlorine crashed into two locomotives and two rail cars. One of the train’s tank cars was punctured and released chlorine gas. Hundreds of fish were killed when gas covered Horse Creek and its tributaries and was absorbed into the water, along with some diesel fuel.
The company settled a class-action lawsuit with 5,400 residents of the Aiken County community and settled with victims harmed by the chlorine release.
In April 2008, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency alleged the company had violated sections of the Clean Water Act and the Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation and Liability Act.
The company must pay $4 million in civil penalties, with $3,967,500 going into the federal Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund, and $32,500 for the Hazardous Substance Superfund.
“This settlement reflects the agency’s commitment to ensure compliance with our nation’s environmental laws,” said Stan Meiburg, EPA acting regional administrator in Atlanta.
“Companies have a responsibility to workers, emergency responders and the community to make sure a serious accident doesn’t become a senseless tragedy.”
The company must also plant native vegetation on Horse Creek’s banks to prevent erosion and siltation, at an estimated cost of $100,000.
These may be trees, shrubs and grasses, such as white oak, black gum, buttonbush and swamp dogwood, according to the court. They must be planted along Horse Creek at the Avondale Mills property and the upstream side of the Chalk Bed Road bridge.
The EPA will inspect the work at the end of February and then again in September 2011.
The court’s decree also requires Norfolk Southern to stock Langley Pond with 3,000 fish.
The fish must include at least 600 each of channel catfish, bluegill, redear or warmouth sunfish, largemouth bass and black crappie. The fish shall be added in at least three separate stocking sessions, with each one separated by at least two months, with the EPA allowed to look on.
The EPA’s decree will make it difficult for passersby to mistake Norfolk Southern’s environmental projects as public-minded volunteer work.
“Any public statement, oral or written, in print, film or other media, made by (the company) making reference to the (project) under this decree shall include the following language: ‘This project was undertaken in connection with the settlement of an enforcement action, United States v. Norfolk Southern Railway Company, taken on behalf of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under the Clean Water Act and the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act …’” according to the court’s decree.