Train derailment in Penobscot County spills over 1,000 gallons of diesel
Jul. 5—Officials are cleaning hundreds of gallons of diesel that spilled onto the ground in Penobscot County earlier this week when a train engine hit parked rail cars and ruptured its fuel tank.
The collision happened Tuesday near the Mattawamkeag-Winn town line, the Lincoln Fire Department said in a social media post.
The crash caused one car to overturn and a second car to derail, puncturing the engine's fuel tank and releasing a substantial amount of fuel onto the ground, according to the fire department.
Estimates of the amount of fuel spilled have varied. The Lincoln Fire Department put the total at about 2,500 gallons, while the Maine Department of Environmental Protection said 1,200 gallons spilled. CSX Transportation, the rail operator, said Friday that it was "less than 1,000 gallons."
Both cars were carrying paper products. There were no injuries.
Crews located the train and placed absorbent pads around the tank, and the spill reportedly did not reach the Penobscot River.
David Madore, the department's spokesperson, said a Maine DEP hazmat responder was onsite with contractors Friday while they installed four recovery wells. A recovery well is essentially a hole lined with plastic culvert pipe that is dug down to the water table level in search of "free product" — in this case fuel.
Only one well west of the tracks showed fuel, Madore said. The well is between 7 and 8 feet deep. More work may be conducted over the weekend if conditions permit, Madore said, and DEP will monitor the site throughout the weekend.
A CSX spokesperson said Friday that cleanup efforts are ongoing and that crews will work through the weekend to remediate the site.
"Our primary focus right now is the health and safety of onsite staff and personnel and mitigating risk to the environment," the spokesperson said.
The cause of the derailment is under investigation.
The derailment and fuel spill come just months after Gov. Janet Mills signed into law an emergency bill creating a new system of state oversight and reporting requirements for freight railroads transporting hazardous materials.
The measure was introduced last year to address concerns about the public's right to information following an April 2023 derailment in Rockwood that sent three locomotives and six rail cars off the tracks, including two carrying hazardous materials. At the time, the state had limited access to information about what was being carried along Maine tracks. The few records the state did have were shielded from public view through an exemption to the Freedom of Access Act added in 2015.
A Portland Press Herald investigation published last year revealed widespread issues with freight rail operations in Maine, including poorly maintained lines, unreported accidents, and secrecy around the hazardous materials transported through the state.
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