(The following story by Gregory Richards appeared on The Virginian-Pilot website on May 9.)
NORFOLK, Va. — Norfolk Southern Corp. will go to trial if necessary to fight a federal environmental lawsuit filed against it because of a deadly January 2005 train wreck in Graniteville, S.C., the Norfolk-based railroad’s top executive said Thursday.
In the incident, one Norfolk Southern train slammed into a parked locomotive, puncturing a tank car and releasing toxic chlorine gas that killed nine people.
The Environmental Protection Agency sued Norfolk Southern last month in federal court in Aiken, S.C. The EPA alleges Norfolk Southern violated the Clean Water Act because chlorine and oil accumulated in a creek, harming fish and vegetation. Norfolk Southern also failed to immediately notify a federal response center that a large amount of chlorine had been released, violating another federal environmental statute, the suit alleges.
Norfolk Southern, the nation’s fourth-largest railroad, is “very, very disappointed” the EPA filed the lawsuit, said Wick Moorman, its chairman and chief executive, speaking at its annual shareholders meeting, held this year at the Chrysler Museum of Art.
“It’s one of those things where you scratch your head and ask, ‘Why would they do that?’ ” he said, responding to a shareholder’s question.
Norfolk Southern had tried to settle the matter with the EPA, Moorman said. In a statement last month, the railroad said it had fully cooperated in the investigation and paid “governmental response costs.”
The EPA does not specify the total financial penalty it is seeking in the suit, “but they want a lot of money,” Moorman said of federal prosecutors.
He initially told shareholders that prosecutors were seeking $50 million but corrected himself and said no specific amount has been mentioned formally.
Asked how much more liability Norfolk Southern faces from the Graniteville accident, Moorman said that some “exposures” remain, “but we feel everything is manageable within the insurance we have.”
Last month, Norfolk Southern settled a lawsuit filed by a textile company that blamed the accident for its closure. The amount of the deal with Avondale Mills has not been released.
The company sought $420 million in damages; Norfolk Southern offered to pay $110 million, an Avondale Mills attorney has said.
Avondale Mills officials said the chlorine gas corroded equipment at its Graniteville facilities.
Aside from the ongoing fallout from the accident, Moorman was upbeat about the railroad’s prospects, despite the slowdown in the economy.
He said Norfolk Southern is looking into powering its locomotives by natural gas or gasoline – rather than diesel – because of high diesel costs.
In the business of the meeting, shareholders elected four directors to the railroad’s board with terms expiring in 2011: Gerald L. Baliles, a former Virginia governor; Gene R. Carter, chief executive officer of the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development; Karen N. Horn, a partner with Brock Capital Group; and retired Navy Adm. J. Paul Reason. Also, the accounting firm KPMG LLP was approved to be Norfolk Southern’s auditor.