The train that derailed and spilled caustic chemicals that killed tens of thousands of fish in 35 miles of high quality streams in McKean and Cameron counties last month was speeding "well in excess" of posted limits, according to the Federal Railroad Administration.
Warren Flatau, a spokesman for the railroad administration, which is investigating the accident, said the derailment of the southbound Canadian National Railroad train headed by a Norfolk Southern engine and operated by a Norfolk Southern crew occurred as the train was coming down a very steep, 2.6 percent grade.
A 2.6 percent grade means that the rail line has a 2.6 foot drop in elevation over 100 feet of track. The steepest rail grade in the state is 3.0 percent.
The special, long-term operating rules for that steep, two-mile section of the Buffalo-to-Harrisburg rail line limited train speeds to 25 miles per hour traveling north, or up grade, and just 15 miles per hour traveling south, or downgrade, the direction in which the train that detailed was traveling.
Mr. Flatau said field investigators told him an event recorder on the train shows the train was speeding but did not tell him exactly how fast. He said the Canadian National train had been rerouted onto the steep Buffalo line due to flooding on its normal rail line in eastern Pennsylvania.
"It's important that a Norfolk Southern crew was piloting the train," Mr. Faltau said, "because the engineer has to be certified over the route a train is traveling and a Canadian national crew would not be."
He said that Norfolk Southern has done drug and alcohol sampling on it crew, standard procedure after such accidents.
Rudy Husband, a Norfolk Southern spokesman, declined to comment on the results of those tests or on reports the train was traveling well over the speed limit. "I'm not going to comment on the specifics of the investigation," he said. "I don't see how that serves Norfolk Southern's interests."
Norfolk Southern did submit this week a required assessment plan to the state Department of Environmental Protection that outlines how it intends to identify and treat areas of soil contamination at the derailment site and adjacent wetlands, meadows and forestlands.
According to the company's plan, it will use borings and probes to gather information about groundwater and the extent and depth of soil contamination. As a temporary measure, it is applying a citric acid solution to neutralize the high pH of the lye still leaching from the soil into the stream.
The accident occurred on the morning of June 30, south of the town of Keating Summit, Potter County, about 150 miles northeast of Pittsburgh. As the train traveled south, down through a deep gorge near the headwaters of Sinnemahoning-Portage Creek, 28 cars of the 44-car train derailed.
Three derailed tank cars split open, leaking 44,000 gallons of highly concentrated, liquid sodium hydroxide, which flowed into the popular, highly rated wild trout stream. It foamed up and killed all fish and aquatic insects for 10 miles below the derailment.
The chemical, also known as caustic soda or lye, and used in drain and oven cleaners, also killed almost all of the fish in 20 miles of the Driftwood Branch and five miles of Sinnemahoning Creek.
Lanty Phillips, who lives along the rail line and Sinnemahoning-Portage Creek in the town of Austin, McKean County, was working in his back yard on the morning of accident when the train came barreling through.
"It just zipped on by still pulling a dozen or so cars," Mr. Phillips said. "My neighbor, who was out too, asked me if I'd seen how fast that train was going and I said, 'Yeah, it was flying.' It didn't stop for another mile and a half and we're about a mile below the derailment site."
He said he was told to evacuate from his house as a precaution and did so when he saw a "wall of foam" about two feet thick flowing down the creek. When the family returned home that evening the water had turned brown.
"My daughter said it looked like root beer with foam around the edges," Mr. Phillips said. "Now it's clear but the bottom is all brown with stringy stuff waving off the bottom."
And there are no fish anymore in the deep creek "hole" off his backyard.
"My daughter and I like to fish, catch and release, and sometimes we just liked to watch them swimming around," he said. "But now we don't see nothing."
Correction/Clarification: (Published August 4, 2006) This July 29, 2006 story about the June 30 train derailment near Keating Summit incorrectly stated that the speed limit where the train left the track is 10 miles per hour. It is 15 miles per hour. Also to clarify, Norfolk Southern received a rerouted Canadian National train in Buffalo, at which point under a standard railroad interchange agreement, it became a Norfolk Southern train.
First Published: July 29, 2006, 4:00 a.m.
