FEBRUARY 26, 2015
Virginia environmental regulators proposed Monday that transportation player CSX be hit with a $361,000 fine for an April 2014 train derailment in Lynchburg.
The Florida-based company agreed to the deal on Monday.
The train was transporting crude from Illinois to a Plains All American midstream facility in Yorktown, Virginia on April 30 when 17 cars derailed and spilled nearly 30,000 gallons of crude into the James River.
No injuries or deaths were reported.
Three of the tanker cars fell into the James River and one tanker was breached but 98 percent of the spilled oil burned off when the cars caught fire, the AP said.
A water quality analysis of the river conducted by Virginia’s Department of Environmental Quality several days after the accident found no contamination issues.
“The actual impact was not as severe as it could have been because most of the oil burned off, but the fact remains that oil entered the river, and that was an environmental impact,” DEQ spokesman Bill Hayden told the Roanoke Times.
CSX will pay over $18,500 to cover costs tied to the DEQ’s investigation of the accident.
The company will also restore part of the James River near the derailment site and monitor the river for long-term environmental impacts tied to the spill.
The public can submit comments about the agreement until March 25 before the deal goes to the State Water Control Board for final approval.
Earlier this month another CSX train traveling to the same Plains All American facility derailed and caught fire in West Virginia near the Kanawha River during a snowstorm.
The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection said water tests have come up negative for oil although a water treatment plant near the accident site was temporarily closed as a precautionary measure.