(The following story by Phillip Yates appeared on the Amarillo Globe-News website on April 18.)
AMARILLO, Texas — A Union Pacific railroad tanker derailed Tuesday morning and fell down an embankment, leaking 75 to 100 gallons of sulfuric acid, a company spokesman said.
The tanker derailed about 5:15 a.m. in the area of Northwest First Avenue and Madison Street in a Burlington Northern Santa Fe rail yard, AFD District Chief Marc Lusk said.
The leak was controlled after the tanker was rolled over, Lusk said.
AFD Capt. Bob Johnson said no residents in the area had to be evacuated after the derailment.
“It happened in the best possible location,” he said.
There were no injuries, the AFD reported. Lusk said the scene was stabilized and Union Pacific was investigating the cause of the derailment. The area was blocked off for about two blocks in each direction north of the derailed tanker.
Heavy loaders and Union Pacific officials were at the scene cleaning the spill Tuesday, Lusk said.
Joe Arbona, a spokesman for Union Pacific, said the company estimates the tank car spilled about 75 to 100 gallons of sulfuric acid.
The damaged tank car will be reloaded and shipped away and company environmental team members are expected to be in Amarillo for cleanup efforts, Arbona said. He said the company’s track maintenance team also will be in Amarillo looking into a cause.
Brad Jones, regional director of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, said the spill was contained early Tuesday and there didn’t “appear to be an adverse risk to health” to residents in the area. Union Pacific workers put the derailed tanker onto another tank car and the acid was vacuumed and cleaned by late Tuesday, Jones said.