(The following article by Michael Wright was posted on the Brazosport Facts website on May 16.)
LIVERPOOL, Texas — No one was injured Saturday when a Union Pacific rail car derailed shortly after leaving the Solutia plant.
The accident happened about 4 p.m. about one-and-a-half miles north of FM 2917 and about 50 yards west of CR 169.
A single tank car had its wheels knocked off the tracks and its outer shell breached, but the accident didn’t present a danger to anyone, Alvin Fire Chief Rex Klesel said.
Klesel said the conductor was switching tracks when the car derailed. The exact cause isn’t known.
“He was looking back, and there was a stream of something coming out of the car,” Klesel said.
The tanker was carrying 4-Thiapentanal but had only a residual amount, said Rick Perry, Brazoria County’s emergency management coordinator.
“It’s very, very toxic,” Perry said.
The chemical is used as a food additive.
Perry said the car’s inner hull wasn’t damaged.
“What we’re getting is like water,” he said. “We tested it and it had a neutral pH.”
Novis International, which has a unit at the Solutia plant, made the chemical. Klesel said the train was destined for the Union Carbide plant in Texas City.
Novis officials could not be reached for comment.
Firefighters from Alvin and Liverpool responded. Klesel said no one had to be evacuated from the sparsely populated area around the derailment.