Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, April 12, 1990 TAG: 9004120614
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RON BROWN, NEAL THOMPSON and MARK MORRISON STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Hazardous-material workers were dispatched to the scene off Virginia 603 by the community of Fagg near Christiansburg in Montgomery County.
Don Piedmont, a spokesman for Norfolk Southern Corp., said the 12 lead cars in a 142-car coal train derailed at 10:42 p.m. The derailment tilted two locomotives, one of which started spilling the diesel fuel into the river.
Piedmont said the locomotive contains about 3,900 gallons when filled to capacity.
Dispatchers in Christiansburg and Montgomery County were busy handling emergency traffic and could not provide information.
Cause of the wreck was not given.
Piedmont said the state Water Control Board and the railroad's safety team had been notified.
Railroad wreckers were being brought in from Roanoke and Bluefield to put the train back on the tracks.
Other railroad traffic was being rerouted while hazardous-materials teams and railroad employees worked to contain the spill.
Piedmont said no one was injured.
At least 20 crews from Elliston, Bent Mountain, Salem, Christiansburg, Shawsville and Roanoke County hazardous materials units were on the scene.
Several dozen law enforcement officers was waiting for instructions early this morning.
The sky was illuminated with the blue and red lights of police and rescue units.
The wreck occurred across the river from Virginia 603. Emergency vehicles were blocking traffic in both lanes of the road.
Hazardous-materials personnel were near the train and trying to assess the severity of the spill.
Residents of the vicinity were standing on their front porches watching the activities.
Dave Chance, pollution control coordinator for the state Water Control Board in Richmond, said the Montgomery County Sheriff's Department reported to him that 2,700 gallons of diesel fuel had been spilled into the river.
He wasn't sure how the Sheriff's Department determined the figure. "That amount of fuel I certainly wouldn't consider a minor spill, but I wouldn't call it catastrophic either," Chance said. "I wouldn't think that you'd see any catastrophic environmental harm."
But he said environmental impact is difficult to predict without actually seeing the site. Officials from the Roanoke Regional Office of the state Water Control Board will investigate today, he said.
"Our role is more damage assessment and that will have to be done during the light of day," he said.
The state Health Department also had been notified, he said.
Potentially, he said the spill could have an impact on the closest water intake plant downstream in Salem.
"I wouldn't expect any major problems or health hazard, but you certainly wouldn't want much of that to get into the plant," he said. "It doesn't take much petroleum in the water to taint it."
Cleanup efforts will continue today, Chance said. The work was to include collecting any remaining pockets of fuel floating on the surface of the river and disposing of saturated soil along its banks.
by CNB