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Train derails in northwest Iowa

Crude oil leaks into floodwaters; tracks collapse, sending 33 cars off rails

By Associated Press
Published: June 22, 2018, 11:21pm
2 Photos
In this aerial drone image, tanker cars carrying crude oil are shown derailed Friday about a mile south of Doon, Iowa. About 33 cars derailed after the tracks reportedly collapsed due to saturation from floodwaters from adjacent Little Rock River.
In this aerial drone image, tanker cars carrying crude oil are shown derailed Friday about a mile south of Doon, Iowa. About 33 cars derailed after the tracks reportedly collapsed due to saturation from floodwaters from adjacent Little Rock River. Sioux County Sheriff’s Office Photo Gallery

DOON, Iowa — A freight train derailed in northwest Iowa on Friday, leaking crude oil from into flooded fields flanking the tracks and raising concerns about the possible contamination of residential water supplies downstream, officials said.

BNSF railroad spokesman Andy Williams said no one was injured when 33 oil tanker cars from Alberta, Canada, derailed around 4:30 a.m. Friday just south of Doon in Lyon County. Some of the tankers were compromised, causing the oil to leak into floodwaters and eventually into the rain-swollen Little Rock River, but officials didn’t have an exact number of tankers that leaked oil by late Friday afternoon, Williams said.

BNSF had hazardous materials and environmental experts on the scene and had begun cleanup within hours of the derailment, Williams said.

“We are containing the oil that was spilled as close to the incident as possible using containment booms and recovering it with skimmers and vacuum trucks,” he said.

Williams said he did not immediately know the train’s destination.

Lyon County Sheriff Steward Vander Stoep said between 30 and 40 semitrailers containing cleanup equipment had arrived at the scene near Doon, Iowa, by Friday afternoon.

Officials at the scene agreed that floodwater from the swollen Little Rock River played a part in causing the cars to leave the tracks, but said they weren’t yet sure whether the waters compromised the track, physically pushed the cars off it or played a part in some other way. The river rose rapidly Wednesday after 5 to 7 inches of rain fell Wednesday and a further downpour on Thursday.

A broadening sheen of oil spread near several of the tankers, which had piled up across the track and earthen berm, some submerged in the water.

Vander Stoep said that drinking water in Doon and the immediate area didn’t seem to be in danger of contamination.

But news of the spill was enough to prompt officials in Rock Valley, a small city about 5 miles southwest of the derailment, to shut off all the city’s drinking water wells. The water towers also will be drained as a precaution, Rock Valley public information officer Travis Olson said.

In the meantime, the city is getting its water from the nearby Rock Valley Rural Water system, which Olson said is not in danger of being contaminated by the spill.

The city, with a population of nearly 3,400, will stay on the rural water system until testing by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources confirms the safety of the city’s drinking water, Olson said.

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