(The following story by Colin Atagi, Angela Franzer and Xochitl Peña appeared on The Desert Sun website on March 5.)
PALM SPRINGS, Calif. — Traci Lo still wore her nightgown underneath her sweatshirt and pants Tuesday afternoon as she found shelter at Coachella Valley High School.
The 53-year-old didn’t want to waste any time changing when fire crews evacuated her Mecca farm and about 40 homes near a 29-car train derailment and chemical spill.
“They said ‘There’s some problems with the train; you need to leave now,'” her husband Ernest Lo said of the Tuesday morning evacuation following the 8:45 p.m. Monday derailment near Grant Street and Hammond Road in Flowing Wells.
Tracks could be closed for two or three days, delaying other freight and passenger trains that travel through this busy corridor.
Highway 111 was still blocked late Tuesday between Avenue 66 and Cleveland Street.
And while crews won’t nail down a timeline, the Riverside County Hazardous Materials team spent Tuesday cleaning up the phosphoric and hydrochloric acids that leaked from at least two train tankers.
Chances are slim that the chemicals polluted groundwater in the area and the Salton Sea, said Dennis Mahr, communications director for the Coachella Valley Water District.
“It’s a rural area, so there’s not a lot of homes,” Cal Fire Capt. Fernando Herrera said. “The biggest concern is the agricultural land.”
The train was pulling about 65 cars and heading from Colton to El Centro. The derailment sparked a fire on railroad ties, but officials said no one was injured and there was no fear of an explosion.
The train carried everything from hazardous chemicals to coal, corn syrup and wheat, said James Barnes, director of media relations at Union Pacific Railroad.
Rail is a preferred method of transporting hazardous waste over long distances or in large loads.
The latest figures available show 1.8 million freight car loads filled with hazardous material were transported in 2006, said Tom White, spokesman for the Association of American Railroads. That year, 32 million total freight loads were transported.
That year, 99.997 percent of all hazardous materials – including anything from house paint and fertilizer to whiskey – traveled from origin to destination without spilling, White said.
“Anything can go by rail,” White said. “In general, rail is regarded as the safest way to move hazardous materials.”
That’s especially true in the Coachella Valley. The Union Pacific rail line a prime mode of transporting goods from Los Angeles and the busy Long Beach port to points east.
A several-day closure of the line could lead to a ” serious economic impact” for Union Pacific and others using it for business, said Joseph Schofer, director of Northwestern University’s Infrastructure Technology Institute.
“They will look to find rerouting opportunities, and if it’s critical to their business, will even do so over a competitors’ tracks,” Schofer said.
Barnes said didn’t share any specifics on the economic impact the derailment will have for Union Pacific.
“Needless to say, it’s our desire to recover as quickly and efficiently as possible,” he said.
By late Tuesday afternoon, about 25 trains were backed up and others were being rerouted to Salt Lake City.
Amtrak’s Sunset Limited passenger train – which stops in Palm Springs – was also impacted.
Train No. 1, which departed from New Orleans on Sunday bound for Los Angeles, was scheduled to stop in Tucson, Ariz., at 12:20 a.m. today, Amtrak spokeswoman Vernae Graham said.
Train No. 5 from Los Angeles to Tuscon was cancelled until Union Pacific’s lines are cleared.
Meanwhile, Graham said passengers will be bussed between Los Angeles and Tucson to keep the service offered three times a week to 20 cities between Los Angeles and New Orleans intact.