Saturday, May 9, 2015

BOTCHED CLEANUP JOB BY UNION PACIFIC RAILROAD: CREWS STILL CLEANING LARGE RAIL FUEL SPILL IN SIDNEY, ILLINOIS. AIR SMELLS AND IS CAUSING EYES TO BURN AND THE BOOMS ARE NOT CONTAINING THE SPILL














MAY 9, 2015

SIDNEY, ILLINOIS

The scent of diesel fuel still hangs in the air — kind of like what you'd smell at a gas station, as one resident put it. And there's still a shimmer on the surface of the water along some parts of a creek that winds through the village.

But one week after a railroad fuel spill had all of Sidney talking, that's the extent of the damage in the small southeast Champaign County village.

"It's just a smell. Nothing that's going to take your breath away," said Mark Catron, who owns property on either side of the creek that runs through the middle of Sidney and eventually into the Salt Fork River. "Diesel has that smell, but it's nothing that's alarming. You smell it, you know it's there."

So far, according to state and local officials, there are also no signs of a fish kill here, which Village President Chuck White feared would be among the aftereffects of last Saturday's incident.

Around 10 a.m. that day, a Union Pacific train on its way to St. Louis began to leak fuel near County Roads 900 N and 2100 E, about one mile south and one mile east of Sidney. All told, White said, the train spilled an estimated 2,000 gallons, which cleanup crews continued to remove Friday.

A railroad contractor, Environmental Restoration, was called in by Union Pacific to contain and clean up the spill. Booms, designed to skim the fuel off the top of the water, have been placed across the width of the creek.

Staci James, a water resources scientist with the Prairie Rivers Network, said there are concerns that the response by the railroad and contractor have not been adequate. That includes instances in which the booms weren't touching the entire width of the creek, allowing water to slip by the edges unfiltered.

James said those concerns have been communicated to the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency.

White said the original thought was that the spill was contained near the railroad line, but there's a ditch on one side of the rail bed and a farm field on the other. He said the fuel likely drained into the creek through field tiles.
State EPA officials have been on-site this week and notified the Illinois Department of Natural Resources in case there's a fish kill. The IDNR's Chris Young said Friday that IEPA officials have been providing updates all week and that no fish kill has been observed.

White said there's still "a little bit" of fuel draining into the creek, and although it's not as bad as it was earlier in the week, he believes there's still a lot of cleanup to be done.

Other than time spent making phone calls and the initial response by the fire department, the spill will not cost the village anything, White said. And Sidney gets its water supply piped in from outside town, so there's no threat there.
Fire Chief Earl Bennett said he talked to railroad officials Thursday and was told that the cleanup will go on for at least another week.

"I think they are doing a good job," Bennett said. "They're doing everything they can possibly do right now."

White said Union Pacific officials called him on Tuesday, and he was told the spill amounted to about 2,000 gallons. But he believes the number is higher.

White said he hopes the IEPA — not the railroad — makes the call on when the cleanup is finished.

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An update on the Union Pacific Railroad fuel spill in Sidney, Illinois. Sidney resident Lisa Foster provided us these photos that she took on Monday afternoon.



As you can see, fuel is clearly bypassing this boom - meant to contain the spill - placed on a creek that flows through Sidney and into the Salt Fork. The booms aren’t working, and the spill is not being contained. Union Pacific should be doing a much better job in cleaning up their mess. 

This also demonstrates why it's important to have a strong Illinois Environmental Protection Agency to hold polluters accountable. Not to give polluters a pass or look the other way.

Residents want a better/faster cleanup. The creek is polluted, there is concern for wildlife, and the air smells and is causing eyes to burn.

https://www.facebook.com/PrairieRiversNetwork

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2,000 GALLONS OF DIESEL SPILL FROM A UNION PACIFIC TRAIN IN SIDNEY, ILLINOIS.  SIGNIFICANT NUISANCE TO THE NEARBY RESIDENTS.

MAY 4, 2015

SIDNEY, ILLINOIS

Village officials fear that fish in the creek that winds through Sidney could be threatened by as much as 2,000 gallons of diesel fuel that drained into it from a railroad spill over the weekend.

"I haven't seen any dead fish yet, but I am concerned," said Sidney Village President Charles White. "I went down to the creek, saw some fish swimming around and definitely smelled some diesel fuel."

He's not alone in the southern Champaign County village of 1,237.

"I'm concerned over the color of the creek and the fact that there's still oil in the creek," resident Suzie Gaines said. "The creek used to look like muddy water, and now it looks like vinegar and oil with a bluish tint into it."

Sidney Fire Chief Earl Bennett said a Union Pacific train on its way to St. Louis began to leak fuel near County Roads 900 N and 2100 E, about one mile south and one mile east of Sidney, at 10 a.m. Saturday.

Bennett said Union Pacific officials told him that an engine may have been leaking fuel.

"They had a railroad car that had a leak and, as they slowed down to repair it, it spilled fuel," said village board member and Sidney firefighter Jason Arrasmith. "It traveled down the creek and went through town."

The engine and perhaps some rail cars were taken to a rail yard in Villa Grove to be checked out, White said.

Bennett said fire department officials were unaware of the problem until they were called to the 400 block of South White Street at 3:45 p.m. Saturday to respond to a report of chemicals flowing through the right branch of the tributary to the Salt Fork River, which winds through the village.

"One gentleman told us it smelled like paint thinner," Bennett said. "It was also leaving a film in the water."

"We got a call about odor in the back yard," Arrasmith added.
"I think you can still smell it today," he said.

When the eight Sidney firefighters saw the filmy creek water, they followed the creek upstream looking for the source of the contamination.

"We traced it to a railroad trestle a mile south and a mile east of the village," Bennett said. 

Bennett said the fuel did not immediately flow into the creek. "It initially went into the soil and then later drained into the creek," he said.
"It appears the fuel ran for about two miles from the point of origin. The last point we could find was a quarter mile from the river."

White expressed concern Monday that nobody from Union Pacific told the mayor about the spill.
But Bennett said Union Pacific sent a cleanup crew to the scene.
"They were in the creek Sunday and again on Monday cleaning all the diesel they could," he said.

Ralph Foster, a senior emergency responder for the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, said a railroad contractor, Environmental Restoration, was in town Monday doing hazmat cleanup work.

A containment boom was being put into place on the north side of a bridge on Victory Street in Sidney.
"It absorbs any fuel that skims on top of the water," Bennett said. "There are now booms placed at different spots throughout town to make sure they catch everything before it gets to the river."

Dan Bowen, a geologist for the state EPA, said the boom will be in place for several weeks.

"It will be probably the middle of the summer before we get any kind of environmental report from the EPA," White said. "There's still lots of fuel through town that needs to get cleaned up. I'm gonna make sure it gets cleaned up all the way."

Foster said the biggest environmental problem in the area is the odor. He said he saw no impact to wildlife or vegetation "at this point."

Bennett, who also serves as Sidney's water superintendent, said there is no danger to the village's water supply because Sidney gets its water from Illinois American Water in Champaign-Urbana.

"This has no effect on our drinking water," Bennett said.


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UNION PACIFIC FUEL LEAK CAUSES 2,000 GALLON SPILL IN SIDNEY, ILLINOIS THAT CONTAMINATES A NEARBY CREEK AND CREATES SIGNIFICANT NUISANCE

MAY 4, 2015

SIDNEY, ILLINOIS

Residents want answers, but they will not get them.  Railroad companies are notorious polluters that are slow at cleaning up their mess, if cleaning it at all. Now, a creek full of diesel fuel is flowing through their backyards. A piece of a train's engine punctured a tank causing a 2,000 gallon fuel leak into a nearby creek. It happened Saturday morning. Hazmat workers and firefighters cleaned it up over the weekend. Now, the EPA has taken over.
It will take weeks to completely clean up. EPA officials say they won't be leaving any time soon. The Department of Natural Resources is also now involved, but people living here say it's too little, too late.

"I haven't heard anything from the EPA whatsoever."

Kathy Flowers lives right next to this creek. It's where a Union Pacific train spilled thousands of gallons of fuel. She says it doesn't exactly smell like spring is in the air.

"It's to the point where you really don't want to be in your backyard at all."

Flowers sent pictures of the spill not long after it happened. Several days later, things don't look much different. She says it's too quiet.

"The frogs have been silent for the last two days."

The IDNR has stepped in to take a closer look at the impact on wildlife in the area. Others say it didn't have to be this week.

"When they do something wrong, they need to own up to it."

Shawn Martin saw it all happen. He says it was hours before the EPA knew what happened. The EPA and railroad could have stopped it.

"Their lax of timing of notifying anybody has allowed this to go as far as it's gone. It could have been stopped way sooner if they said something."

"The first day, we took a sample of the water. What's going to happen, not necessarily now, but in a month from now? Two months from now? I would like to see more activity, more finding out what's going on."

Sidney's village president says he's also unhappy with how slow progress has been. The EPA says Union Pacific notified them within a reasonable amount of time.

Source: www.illinoishomepage.net