(The Associated Press distributed the following article on September 4.)
MINOT, N.D. — People living in a neighborhood where a train derailment spilled deadly anhydrous ammonia last year are being polled about a new water system.
The results of the vote among residents in the Tierracita Vallejo neighborhood are expected to be known next Tuesday.
The Canadian Pacific Railway has proposed a $500,000 water project as part of a $925,000 fine levied against it by the State Health Department. The rest of the fine would go into the state’s general fund.
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Health Department representatives met with the subdivision residents and landowners Tuesday night.
Russ Gohl, a spokesman for Earthmovers Inc., the company that would install the water system, said a decision should made soon because a delay would increase costs.
Gohl, who now lives in Tierracita Vallejo with his wife, Jeanne, the company owner, said the railroad’s $500,000 offer is firm, but the costs of asphalt paving have gone up even in the past two months.
Tom Lundeen, a spokesman for the subdivision residents, said a poll of 21 residents of the area indicated 18 would prefer to go with a rural water system rather than with the city of Minot, to the east.
Officials say the cost of a sewer system, if residents want it, would have to be paid by special assessments against their properties.
Health Department representatives have said the water system was proposed as a way to ease fears about the contamination of area wells from the ammonia spill.
Scott Radig, an environmental engineer with the Health Department, said work on protecting the groundwater will continue.
Radig said the ammonia concentration at the derailment site now ranges from 100 parts per million to 200 parts per million, compared to 20,000 ppm right after the derailment. The standard for drinking water is 30 ppm, he said.
“There were two relatively small locations, one on the north side and one on the south side of the tracks, that had contamination,” Radig said. “Initially, it was very high, and it has decreased dramatically. It is in an isolated area out there, and they’re actively pumping it out of the ground.
“We’ve got monitoring wells surrounding it so we’ll know if the contamination is moving out of the area,” Radig said. “So far, it hasn’t been.”