KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Nearly half the 3,000 residents forced to evacuate because of a sulfuric acid leak from a derailed freight train were allowed to return home Monday night, according to the Associated Press.
Emergency workers were close to neutralizing the leak from the 141-car Norfolk Southern train, which wrecked Sunday. No one was seriously injured but about 20 subdivisions in the affluent Knoxville suburb of Farragut and neighboring Blount County were evacuated.
Residents given the OK to return home Monday live in subdivisions farthest from the wreckage.
“We were trying to get as many back tonight as we could,” Knox County Sheriff Tim Hutchison said Monday. “Everyone else in the other subdivisions, we will just have to wait until sometime tomorrow morning and see exactly what the railroad and EPA representatives say.”
Most of the 10,600 gallons of sulfuric acid in the tanker escaped into the air or collected in a hole dug by the 22-car pileup. The highly corrosive acid is used in manufacturing and was headed to a chemical plant in Alabama.
Responders worked to dilute the leaking chemical with a watery mist, lime and soda ash.
No chemicals reached Fort Loudoun Lake, part of the Tennessee River system, some 20 feet from the accident, or were detected in the air beyond a 1.3-mile evacuation zone.
It was still unknown what caused the Birmingham, Ala.-bound freight train to derail. The National Transportation Safety Board ( news – web sites), the Federal Railroad Agency and the Environmental Protection Agency ( news – web sites) all sent investigators.
Police escorted some residents home to retrieve medicines and pets. Norfolk Southern set up a claims center in a church to reimburse evacuated residents — offering to pay for everything from motel bills and meals to toothpaste and clothing.
Bob Wells, who ran the claims center, said Norfolk Southern has done this sort of thing before, but added: “It doesn’t happen that often. We are the safest railroad there is.”