TUESDAY, MAY 12, 2015
SIDNEY, ILLINOIS
The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency says Union
Pacific Railroad has failed to properly clean up diesel fuel that leaked from
one of its trains into the Salt Fork River in eastern Illinois.
The agency asked the state's attorney general Friday to
compel the railroad to do more to mitigate the May 2 spill near the village of
Sidney in Champaign County.
Railroad spokesman Mark Davis says the company's cleanup
contractor has been at work since the incident and its environmental team would
continue to cooperate with federal and state agencies.
The diesel leaked from fuel tanks on three locomotives.
Village President Chuck White tells The (Champaign)
News-Gazette that at least 2,000 gallons was released.
The state EPA says the Union Pacific contractor failed to
contain all of the fuel.
It’s unclear exactly
what the consequences will be, but the company has been cited for polluting the
creek which runs through the town.
It has been known for many years in the environmental
profession that the railroads are among the dirtiest and filthiest
operations: from fuel oil spills, to
derailments, to leaks, to spraying lubricants and PCBs and other chemicals
along their right of way.
They are also pretty much untouchable, because it is an
operating business and the contamination cannot be cleaned up. This means that significant amount of
pollution originates from the railroads and is never cleaned up: it just seeps into the ground or runs off.