(The following article by Lisa Sandberg was posted on the San Antonio Express-News website on May 5.)
SAN ANTONIO — The wrecked boxcars have been hauled away, the tracks repaired, the spilled fuel mostly collected, and the trains are running again.
Life returned mostly to normal along the San Antonio River on Tuesday, a day after a freight train derailment spilled 5,600 gallons of diesel just south of downtown.
“This is a very fortunate accident,” said Mike Gonzales, a San Antonio River Authority official.
“Even though it (delayed) some trains, it was low impact.”
“No birds or fish are being impacted yet, not even vegetation,” said Cameron Lopez, spill coordinator for the San Antonio offices of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
Lopez said the black diesel patches noticeable near the derailment site Monday had been cleaned up or had floated downstream.
“It’s less noticeable but more spread out,” he said.
Environmentalists credited the quick response time of state, local and private clean-up crews in mitigating any damage.
The fuel spill was caused by the derailment early Monday morning of a Union Pacific freight train.
A section of an 80-car train, bound for Mexico, apparently clipped the rear of a passing train.
That sent the southbound train’s two engines and the 12 boxcars behind them barreling off an overpass near Brackenridge High School.
The fuel-filled engines and five boxcars with nontoxic cargo, such as rice, canned goods and beer, plunged into the river.
The remaining cars tumbled onto St. Mary’s Street.
Other railroad cars with propane were farther back on the train and did not derail.
Two crew members and a homeless man were injured slightly.
The crash’s cause has not been determined, said a Union Pacific spokesman.
He said he could not yet estimate the cleanup costs, which will be paid by the company.
The last of the boxcars were hauled off early Tuesday, and train service in both directions had resumed by midmorning.