DERAILMENT NEAR SWEETWATER : Chemical Carriers Leave Tracks
By Ron Clayton and Cliff Hightower, Chattanooga Times/Free Press, Tenn.
Jun. 21–SWEETWATER, Tenn. — Cleanup crews worked through the night Tuesday to safely remove chemicals from tank cars that were part of a 21-car train derailment here early in the day.
Authorities said local residents who slept overnight in motels should be allowed to return home this morning. U.S. Highway 11 and the Norfolk Southern rail line could reopen later in the day, they said.
At a news conference Tuesday afternoon, Monroe County Sheriff Doug Watson said authorities didn’t know why the cars left the track a half-mile north of the Sweetwater city limit at 2:45 a.m. Tuesday.
Susan Terpay, spokeswoman for Norfolk Southern, said the tanks were part of an 84-car train headed for Knoxville.
She said the cars contained butane; carbon dioxide; liquid propane; methyl methacrylate, an ingredient in plastic; and propylene oxide, which is used to make polyurethane, flame retardants and synthetic lubricants.
“Three cars, including one with propane, one with butane and one with carbon dioxide, were on their sides,” Ms. Terpay said. Two other tanks were leaning, she said, but none of the cars leaked.
Other derailed cars spilled gypsum wallboard and loads of plastic pellets, officials said.
Ms. Terpay said prefabricated tracks with ties attached to the rails were trucked to the site and the track was being rebuilt Tuesday afternoon. By late Tuesday, Monroe County Mayor Alan Watson said nearly all of the cars had been lifted back onto undamaged areas of track.
Sheriff Watson said crews would take four to five hours to transfer the liquid propane to four tanker trucks later in the evening.
“Two boxcars and two tank cars still need to be addressed,” he said.
The car of butane will be left at the site for several days, and some of its contents will be released and burned off, the sheriff said.
“There will be a fire there, but people shouldn’t be concerned,” Sheriff Watson said.
The North Monroe County Fire Department was first on the scene when the cars derailed, Chief Tom Hoskin said. He said firefighters set up a perimeter around the site, which is only about 30 feet from U.S. Highway 11. Deputies drove around the site to check for leaks or contamination.
“They were our canaries,” he said, referring to the birds used to monitor air quality in mines.
When the cars left the tracks early Tuesday, “it was like a big bolt of thunder,” nearby resident Steven Broiles said. “Then it got real quiet.”
Moments later there was a knock on the back door, and his family was hurried from the home to a shelter, he said.
Authorities said 65 people living within a half-mile of the wreck were evacuated as a precaution. Sheriff Watson said 51 people went to a shelter set up at Sweetwater High School and later to motels.
Tennessee Emergency Management Agency representative Ken Fitts said all of the agencies worked well at the scene, and the railroad had equipment on site not long after the accident was reported.
This is the second major train wreck for Sweetwater. In 1996, a tanker car loaded with carbon disulfide broke open and forced about 500 people to flee the city. Soil at the site of that spill had to be hauled to a hazardous material dump in another state.
According to the Federal Railroad Administration, 43 trains derailed in Tennessee last year and 60 left the tracks in Georgia. Nationally, 2,256 derailments were reported to the government, administration records show.
Of those incidents, only one in Tennessee released hazardous materials, according to federal statistics. None of the Georgia derailments resulted in a release of hazardous materials, the railroad administration figures showed. Nationally, 36 hazardous releases occurred, according to the agency.
Norfolk Southern reported a total of 11 train derailments last year in Tennessee, all of them occurring in train yards or switching stations, records show.
Ms. Terpay said 18 to 20 trains use the rail line from Chattanooga to Knoxville daily. Other trains using the line Tuesday were diverted onto secondary lines, and there were no significant delays, she said.
“It isn’t impacting the flow of commerce,” she said.
E-mail Ron Clayton at jwalton@timesfreepress.com E-mail Cliff Hightower at chightower@timesfreepress.com
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Copyright (c) 2006, Chattanooga Times/Free Press, Tenn.
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