I remember the July 14, 1991, derailment that prisoned the river, but it must have been a TV show because I can't find any notes on it. So here goes.
In this photo, note the white freight car laying in the river. That was a tank car carrying 19,000 gallons of the Pesticide metam sodium. Almost every living organism in 38 miles of the river was dead. This incident rather literally killed the fly-fishing tourist industry, which was a good part of Dunsmuir's economy. The fish population recovered in 3-4 years thanks in part to a 3-year fishing ban. [abc7news]
Some sources called it a herbicide, but because it fumigated into a green gas, it must be a pesticide.
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| reddit, photo 3 |
The regulations for tank cars that carry petroleum products have been changing. Are the regulations for puncture resistance for tank cars carrying hazardous material not as stringent? It seems that the forces of just falling off a bridge would be rather benign, yet the tank car's integrity failed.
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| sacriver |
A river is not supposed to have pretty colors.
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| wildlife |
Nor is it supposed to be green.
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| RealNews [The sources were running about 50/50 in terms of herbicide vs. pesticide. But this article indicates it was a pesticide because "the pesticide that spilled into the river is a fumigant. So, when combined with water, it created a toxic gas that billowed 45 miles downriver to Shasta Lake, where the chemical dispersed....Naomi Croft remembers the incident well. She heard a loud crash and 'all of a sudden, it turned green outside.' "] |
Some people did suffer "persistent respiratory disorders, including irritant-induced asthma." [chest]
"Within a week, every fish (1.1 million in total) and all other aquatic life in a 45-mile stretch of the Sacramento River was killed. In addition, many residents living along the river became ill with symptoms that included headaches, shortness of breath, and vomiting. The spill considered the worst inland ecological disaster in California history." The settlement in 1994 was for $16m. [lieffcabraser]
In 2000, UP built a "guard" rail to keep derailed cars from falling into the river. [Amie Sanderson comment on BridgeHunter] Back in 1991, Southern Pacific still owned this route.
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| Ron Sherman posted Now, THAT'S a guard rail Cantara Loop, near Dunsmuir, CA This is where, in 1991, a Southern Pacific freight train derailed, resulting in a massive chemical spill into the Sacramento River. The article below reports on how the area has rebounded and recovered. I believe they said the train was put together with a string of light cars in between lengths of heavy cars, and that combination led to the light section being pulled off the tracks around the curve. Does that happen? Andrew Beeman: Ron Sherman it’s called a “string line derailment” Jason Ludford: Ron Sherman I was on that derailment and basically what you just described did happened but there was one other factor is it the lead units powered out in the curve they had a SD unit behind 2 GP units The SD unit started jumping up and down on the rails and then rolled over. Ron Sherman: Jason Ludford Yikes! What does 'powered out' mean? Jason Ludford: So what I mean is They lost traction On the curve when they lost the traction the rest of the train and all the slack came up behind the three lead units at that point the number three unit being it was more powerful than the two lead units started bouncing up-and-down on the rails in the train went backwards and that’s what they mean by string lining and rolled everything into the river this all happened about 10 o’clock at night we got the phone call about 1030 started rolling equipment and trucks that way we got there about seven or 8 o’clock the next morning by the time we got there the tank car was the main focus so we went down and investigated you could drive a Volkswagen through the middle of it there was two box cars also in the river immediately pulled them out of the river got them out of the way and then we started focusing on the locomotive that was rolled over while all this was going on we had every federal government agencies and state agency are telling everybody what they wanted to do by that time the tank car was pretty well empty if its contents. Photo by MostlyDeserts, License: Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike (CC BY-SA) |
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| Photo by MostlyDeserts via BridgeHunter, License: Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike (CC BY-SA) |
This curved bridge is no stranger to string-line derailments. This one happened in Apr 1976.
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| MtShastaNews "This was the scene after three flat cars containing four vans plunged into the Sacramento River after nine cars jumped the tracks on the Cantara bridge." The article quotes a SP public relation official, George Krause, who describes a string-line derailment. "As salvage operations were taking place over the weekend, some of the packages of detergent and containers of a toilet bowl freshener dumped into the river causing bubbles to form and the river to turn blue. These items were biodegradable, according to Krause, and should cause no harm to the water." |
The cost of cleaning up derailments must come out of a different budget so that it doesn't increase the sacred operating ratio of PSR railroad management. It appears that UP is still building trains with heavy loads behind empty cars because they had another string-line derailment in Aug 2021. Does UP reimburse the payroll and travel expenses for those six agencies that sent employees to the scene?
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| Mount Shasta News posted Train Derails Near Site of Major Railroad Chemical Spill On Friday, 27 August 2021, there was a Union Pacific train derailment at Cantara Loop -18 cars derailed, 11 down, 7 standing -Of the 18 cars, most are empty. There are 2 down tanker cars, both empty with the only residual product: NO Threat or hazard. There are no punctures to the tank cars, and nothing has entered the river Union Pacific crews are on the scene to the right of the cars. There is currently no impact on the river. Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Office , Siskiyou County Environmental Health, Siskiyou County Office of Emergency Services , CAL FIRE Siskiyou Unit , and California Department of Fish and Wildlife have been on the scene There was no evacuation required or threat to the surrounding environment. Please stay away from the area as Union Pacific Railroad Crews continue to upright and salvage the cars. Photos: Edward Chads, Facebook Jodi Houston: Of course no spill into the Sacramento River because it is not longer a river, just a trickling stream. [A reminder that California is having another serious drought.] |
Sad to see such a devastating environmental consequence.
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