(The following story by Marija B. Vader appeared on The Daily Sentinel website on June 25.)
GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. — A Union Pacific coal train derailed Thursday night on Orchard Mesa, spilling more than 400 tons of coal into a stretch of the Gunnison River listed as critical habitat for endangered fish.
No one was injured in the 5:15 p.m. train wreck.
Immediately upon hearing of the spill, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service dispatched a boat to assess damage, said Grand Junction Fire Department Battalion Chief John Williams.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is responsible for overseeing the recovery program for the endangered species.
A railroad employee who did not give his name said Union Pacific would likely have the track repaired within 24 hours. He did not say how long it would take to clean up the coal.
No other Union Pacific spokesman was available to comment.
That stretch of river is critical habitat for the Colorado pikeminnow and razorback sucker, both native endangered species, said Randy Hampton, spokesman for the Colorado Division of Wildlife.
The good news is that coal does not pose a large problem for fish, he said.
“Typically we don’t see heavy fish mortality if there is coal in the water. Fortunately, it’s fairly inert in the water.
“The biggest risk for the fish would be if they were right there and were crushed by the coal as it entered the river,” Hampton said. Another concern is suffocation of fish swimming in high concentrations of coal.
“Coal doesn’t have an extreme impact, except right there at the location,” said Tommy Stewart, duty officer with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. “It’s not like a toxic substance or oil.”
State aquatic biologists were expected to further assess the situation today, Hampton said.
The derailment snapped the line of more than 80 coal cars into three different sections.
In the first section, comprised of about 20 cars, the last four cars jumped the track, but the coal did not spill. In the center section, four cars tipped over onto their sides, sending some of the coal into the river.
The third section, the last 60 or so cars, sustained the greatest damage. Some 17 to 18 steel cars lay twisted on mangled tracks. All the coal from four cars in that section spilled into the river. Some of the coal from the other cars in that section spilled as well, Williams reported.
When full, each car holds 100 tons of coal.
From the site of the spill, a plume of black water flowed downstream.
Concerned about the possibility of coal harming crops, the Redlands Water and Power Company shut off its irrigation water intake, Williams said.
The deck and a pasture of Pat and John Johnson’s home, at the dead end of Edlun Road, offered a bird’s-eye view of the derailment as well as the 70 coal cars still square and full on the track.
John Johnson was on his deck when he heard the train slowly round the bend below his home.
He heard a grinding noise, “and then it just turned into thunder,” Johnson said. “The rail split and the undercarriages fell off and the cars just started piling up.
“When the dust all settled, I could see we had a hell of a wreck.”
Trains had been “creeping through, about as slow as you can get them,” in that area for the past four to five days, he said. Farther up the gradient, Union Pacific employees had been working on the tracks, Johnson said.
Johnson’s neighbor Ineke Hoops commented on the thick cloud of dust that billowed up the ridge over her home from the train wreck.
“It sounded like the train was going too fast,” Hoops said. “Brown dust went everywhere, and I couldn’t see the river.”
Hoops also said she had seen railroad maintenance workers on the tracks for the past two days.
Union Pacific immediately called the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, said Stewart.
The Department of Natural Resources also was notified, as well as the regional office of the Environmental Protection Agency.
“We’re interested in anything that affects the environment,” Stewart said. “It has an impact on water users, and that’s what the health department is interested in.”
Tuesday night, another Union Pacific coal train derailed, this one empty.
In that incident, five cars derailed just west of the Fifth Street bridge in Grand Junction.