(The following story by Angela Davis appeared on the Greenville Online website on June 14, 2010.)
LIBERTY — Norfolk Southern expects to resume efforts Tuesday to remove hazardous chemicals from cars damaged during the train derailment in Liberty.
Attempts Sunday to transfer a flammable and potentially toxic chemical that can cause breathing problems from a damaged rail car into a new car were unsuccessful.
The transfer of the chemical, toluene diisocyanate, was to be done by connecting the two cars with a hose, in what is called a “closed loop system,” to keep vapors from escaping while the material was being pumped from the derailed car into an empty car, said Robin Chapman, spokesman for Norfolk Southern.
Norfolk Southern was unable to complete the transfer because the tank car that was brought in had too much air pressure inside to receive the load of chemicals, he said.
Instead, that car was to be taken back to Greenville Sunday night where “they’ll work on it on Monday and bring it back to Liberty Tuesday to resume the transfer,” Chapman said.
Chapman said additional chemical transfers will have to be made. Among the chemicals are isopropnal alcohol and ethylene glycol, flammable liquids that leaked during the 24-car derailment last week.
On Thursday, 436 homes within a mile of the derailment near Farmers Hill Road and South Norman Street were evacuated because isopropyl, a flammable alcohol-based liquid that can cause dizziness and suffocation, had spilled from a tanker. Those residents were allowed to return home early Friday morning.
A second evacuation involving about 100 people from 28 homes was ordered Friday afternoon. The evacuation order was lifted at 7:30 a.m. Saturday and residents were allowed to return to their homes, said Lynn Fisher, director of Pickens County emergency management.
“We had done that as a precautionary measure in the interest of public safety in dealing with those cars,” Fisher said. “We didn’t want to take a chance that we’d have any sort of additional leak or spill that could endanger anyone.”
The load of toluene diisocyanate was the only load Norfolk-Southern tried to transfer on Sunday, according to Chapman. There was no leak or release of the chemical, he said.
“The car is intact but it is damaged,’ he said. “To prevent any release of it, they’re transferring the load into a new tank car. Then it will be safe to move the damaged one.”
A safety buffer zone with a radius of about 250 feet was placed around the site to keep people away from the car as a precaution, Chapman said.
Fisher said the county’s hazmat team is at the site monitoring the air quality “at all times in the interest of public safety and the workforce down there.”
He expects it will be days before all hazardous materials are removed from the damaged cars.
And, it will be some time before all the remediation is done at the derailment site,” Fisher said. “Norfolk-Southern is responsible for that.”