(The following article by Mike McKibbin was posted on the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel website on June 30.)
WOLCOTT, Colo. — A coal train derailed early Tuesday morning in Eagle County, dumping up to 80 tons of coal and an unknown amount of diesel fuel into a stretch of Gold Medal trout-fishing waters of the Colorado River, a Union Pacific Railroad spokesman said.
No injuries occurred and officials expected to have 300 feet of tracks replaced and the stretch reopened by 3 a.m. today.
Two engines and nine coal cars in the six-engine, 144-car train derailed around 2:45 a.m. enroute to the Denver area from a coal mine 15 miles southwest of Steamboat Springs, said Union Pacific spokesman Mark Davis.
The derailment is the second in two weeks on the West Slope and the fourth this year. Last Thursday night, more than 400 tons of coal spilled into the Gunnison River on Orchard Mesa. Two other derailments occurred in Glenwood Canyon and on a bridge over the Gunnison River near Delta.
The latest accident sent the coal and diesel fuel into an area of the Colorado called Yarmony, about five miles east of Bond and near the well-known State Bridge.
Shortly after the spill, crews set up absorbent booms in the river directly around the coal and diesel spill, which looked to be confined to about a 200-foot-wide area by late Tuesday afternoon. All but one car and the engine had been removed and placed on the other side of the tracks at that time.
The engine lay on its side with the mangled car partly in the river. Repair crews, bulldozers and other heavy equipment worked to remove the engine and car.
The accident happened about 200 yards downriver from the Rancho Del Rio, a small rafting and resort operation with several river-side cabins. Several people sat in front of the small general store Tuesday to watch the crews work.
“I wasn’t here, so I didn’t hear anything,” said store employee Brey Flanagan. “You hear so many trains you don’t really notice them sometimes.”
Davis said the cause was under investigation. He would not estimate how much fuel might have leaked from the overturned engine.
“The average capacity is 3,500 gallons, but I’m not sure how much this specific tank might have held,” he said. “When the crews get to the point of off-loading the fuel, they can arrive at a guess of how much spilled. They should have that (today).”
Colorado Division of Wildlife aquatic biologists and others were on the scene Tuesday, said spokesman Randy Hampton.
“The booms should collect any liquid that spilled, and as of now, we don’t have any dead fish,” he said Tuesday night. “That doesn’t mean we won’t, and we’ll continue monitoring for the next several days.”
DOW workers had stretched more booms across the Colorado at different downstream locations, Hampton said.
The spill occurred in a calm, shallower area of the river, likely created by the drought.
“That will likely work to their benefit,” Hampton said, since any harmful liquids were more likely contained in the vicinity.
Other aquatic life and water fowl will also be monitored for any adverse affects, he said. The area’s high elevation likely meant endangered fish species were not present, Hampton said.
If any wildlife is determined to have died as a result of the derailment and spill, Union Pacific could be fined by the DOW, he said.