Train Derails in PA

Environmental disasters happen all the time. But unless the devastation is overwhelming ? such as what happened after the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska ? society doesn't tend to pay a whole lot of attention.

As an outdoor writer, I am probably more sensitive than most when it comes to environmental issues. Yet even I admit that with everything going on in the world today, it's easy to watch televised pictures of a flaming oil well in Iraq or a polluted river in China and forget about it five minutes later.


What happened June 30 near in McKean and Cameron counties, however, hit a little too close to home. That day, a Norfolk Southern train derailed near Gardeau, McKean County, and dumped 48,000 gallons of a highly toxic chemical into the Sinnemahoning Portage Creek.

The spill took an almost unfathomable toll on the local watershed, which contains some of the finest trout water anywhere in Pennsylvania. Preliminary results from stream surveys conducted by the state Fish and Boat Commission and Department of Environmental Protection indicate a near total loss of fish and other aquatic life for 10 miles downstream and significant impacts for another 20 miles.

To put the incident in perspective, imagine waking up one morning to news that the entire Little Lehigh Creek ? from the trout all the way down to the mayflies and other tiny insects they feed upon ? had been wiped out in less than 24 hours.

In the hours immediately after the accident, dead trout, smallmouth bass, catfish, carp and other species washed up on the streambanks by the thousands. Witnesses say some fish were literally leaping from the surface in a desperate but futile effort to escape their watery graves.

The chemical that spilled from the train was sodium hydroxide, also known as caustic soda or lye. Experts say the chemical literally burned the fish's gill filaments, eliminating their ability to remove oxygen from the water and causing the fish to suffocate.

Jim Zoschg Jr., a watershed specialist with the Cameron County Conservation District, is among the local residents with first-hand knowledge of the destruction.

''You could smell it in the air, and I pretty much knew things were going to be hit pretty hard downstream,'' he said.

Of the areas hardest hit by the spill, Zoschg said about four miles were designated as Class A wild trout waters by the Fish and Boat Commission, plus another seven miles that are stocked with trout by the agency.

''It was a destination stream for people from all over the state, and a lot of people came up that weekend to fish, being the Fourth of July weekend,'' Zoschg said. ''They were in for a surprise.''

Two days after the spill, Zoschg visited one of his favorite fishing spots along the Driftwood Branch of the Sinnemahoning Creek, about 16 miles downstream of the derailment. Instead of a fly rod, Zoschg carried a digital camera.

''I was thinking, 'I should be down here fishing wet flies, and here I am photographing dead fish,''' he said. ''As somebody who has grown up on the Driftwood Branch and fished it all my life, it was just sorrow and sadness.''

Norfolk Southern and the Federal Railroad Administration are investigating the cause of the derailment. Meanwhile, Norfolk Southern has hired environmental consultants to begin remediation work at the derailment site and develop a restoration plan for affected stream sections.

The state is also in the process of compiling a complete assessment of the environmental damage. The Fish and Boat Commission will tally up the number of lost fish, while the Department of Environmental Protection is responsible for gauging the impact on water quality and aquatic insects.

Eventually, the two agencies will put a value on the damage and seek to recover those costs from Norfolk Southern. Commission spokesman Dan Tredinnick said the state also is likely to seek compensation for lost recreational angling opportunities and costs associated with conducting its investigation. On top of all that, he said, there are likely to be penalties for violation of various water quality and fisheries regulations.

Tredinnick said compiling the state's case could take a year or more, adding that ''we want to be exceptionally thorough to make sure we don't miss anything.''

It's too soon to know what kind of dollar figure the commission and DEP will come up with, but it's not unrealistic to think it could climb into the millions. The total from this one incident will almost certainly surpass the combined tally of $209,000 collected from more than 200 pollution cases the commission settled in all of 2005.

No matter the amount, a pile of cash will likely bring little solace to local anglers and nature lovers who viewed what was lost as priceless.

It's also sobering to think about how quickly other waters could meet a similar fate. All of the Lehigh Valley's most treasured streams ? from the Lehigh River to the Little Lehigh, Saucon, Monocacy and Bushkill creeks ? have major roadways and/or rail lines along their banks.

''I think it should be an eye-opener for the whole state,'' Zoschg said, ''because if this can happen up here in Cameron County, population 5,500, it can happen anywhere in the state. There are chemicals like this being hauled all over the state on our roadways and railroad lines, and you don't ever notice it until something goes bad.''
Christian Berg
Outdoors
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By Don Hopey, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette



Usually when Jim Zoschg, a fly fisherman, hears big fish jumping it's a good thing. Late Friday night, on the Driftwood Branch of Sinnemahoning Creek in Cameron County, that was definitely not the case.




A Norfolk Southern Railway train derailment that morning near the north-central Pennsylvania town of Gardeau, McKean County, spilled a highly toxic chemical into Portage Run, an "exceptional value" wild trout stream and tributary of the Driftwood Branch, and Mr. Zoschg was following its progress downstream.
"I had a flashlight and was on a bridge near the village of Cameron and could see fish dying in the shallows," said Mr. Zoschg, a watershed specialist with the Cameron County Conservation District. "Out in the dark in the main flow, I could hear big fish jumping to try to get out of the pollution. That's something they do when they're stressed."
Twenty-nine rail cars derailed in the accident, including three tank cars carrying sodium hydroxide that ruptured and spilled 47,000 gallons of the liquid, which flowed into Portage Run, then the Driftwood Branch and then Sinnemahoning Creek.

The highly concentrated chemical, which is used in drain and oven cleaners, killed tens of thousands of trout, bass and other game fish, plus tadpoles, aquatic insects and waterfowl in 35 miles of those streams extending from southern McKean County through Cameron County and into Clinton County. At the derailment site the chemical was concentrated enough to cause skin burns.
John Arway, chief of the state Fish and Boat Commission's environmental services division, described the accident as a "major fish kill," and said the chemical was so strong that it leached iron out of the stream banks and turned the flows the color of root beer, making it difficult to estimate the number of dead fish.
"Portage Run was one of the better trout streams we had in the state, and it took the brunt of the spill," Mr. Arway said. "It really sterilized the whole water system and its toxicity was so great that I don't think much will be able to tolerate or survive it."
The fish kill is expected to be 100 percent in the first four miles of Portage Run, which had earned the highest water quality rating by the state and supported a thriving population of wild brown and brook trout, and also in the lower six miles of the run, which was stocked with trout. It is expected that all the fish in the 20-mile-long Driftwood Branch, which has a reputation among fishermen for producing big brown trout, also died.
Many fish also died in the first five miles of Sinnemahoning Creek, below the town of Driftwood in Cameron County, where it is joined by the Bennett Branch. Storms dumped rain in the watershed over the weekend, which helped dilute the pollution.
The spilled chemical, also known as caustic soda or lye, is used in several domestic cleaning products and also to manufacture soaps, rayon, paper, explosives, dyes and petroleum products. A chlorine tank car also derailed but did not leak.
Rudy Husband, a spokesman for Norfolk Southern, said all the derailed tank cars were removed Saturday and trains have been running on the rail line since Monday. He said the cause of the derailment remains under investigation.
The state Department of Environmental Protection will begin water sampling next week for aquatic insect life, including mayflies, stoneflies and caddis flies that fish feed on. And the Fish Commission will conduct fish population sampling to determine the extent of the environmental damage.
It's expected that the only fish that will be found in the affected creeks will have moved from unaffected tributaries.
"Those main streams will have to start all over again in terms of recolonizing fish and insect populations," Mr. Arway said. "There won't be any residual effects because the chemical will wash through, but for a watershed this big it will take quite a while, many, many years, to come back."
The fish kill and long recovery are expected to hurt Cameron County's economy, which counts heavily on a thriving fishing tourism business, Mr. Zoschg said.
"The Driftwood Branch was one of the top freestone fishing streams in the state, and this weekend people will be coming up here from all over the state to fish, he said. "This is just a tragic thing. You hear about it happening elsewhere, but Cameron County is pristine and unpopulated. This is unprecedented for this area."
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