Rail Company 'Shocked' By Scope Of DEP Order

Cameron County Conservation District Director Jan Hampton was among a handful of people who posed questions to a Department of Environmental Protection team that was in Emporium Wednesday night for a public hearing held to explain the benchmarks outlined in a DEP order presented to shipping giant Norfolk Southern last week. That company faces a major restoration project for the environmental damage it caused when one of its freighters derailed on a remote section of track near Gardeau, spilling thousands of gallons of chemicals into wetland area. That's Don Hegburg of the DEP's Environmental Clean-Up Program, addressing Hampton's concerns, while his colleagues look on.

The stage appears to be set for a face-off between the rail company responsible for a chemical spill here and Pennsylvania's environmental custodian.

Last week the Pa. Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) ordered Norfolk Southern to restore the streams and ground that were destroyed when toxic chemicals from one of the company's crashed trains to "pre-spill condition."

Norfolk Southern officials were "shocked" by the scope of the order, according to a company officials, who said the legally binding document is still under review by its environmental and legal teams.

In the lower photo DEP Secretary Kathy McGinty, flanked by a huge photo of the crash, explains the agency's order to a crowd gathered on the courthouse lawn last Friday.

"That we are still dissecting it is an indication (of our reaction)," Norfolk Southern's public relations director said Thursday. "We feel like we've been cooperating and moving in the direction they (DEP) wanted us to."

Husband would not comment on specific sections of the order that Norfolk Southern might contest.

While Norfolk Southern has had rail accidents that have caused environmental destruction in the past and even the loss of human lives, Husband said the conditions here are unprecedented.

"Any situation of this magnitude has unique elements to it," he explained. "And that's no doubt the case here. We're hopeful that we can set up a meeting with DEP (and discuss those elements)."

Husband noted that despite the new challenges brought on by the order, Norfolk Southern "has not lost sight of the fact" that it has a responsibility to the environment and the people affected by the spill.

Norfolk Southern has had clean-up and environmental teams at the site of the spill since the crash. To offset the pH imbalance caused by the sodium hydroxide, Norfolk Southern has been adding citric acid to the soil and water there.

Husband would not say how much the company has spent on remediation efforts to date.

Since the train crash and resulting chemical spill that devastated a large section of one of Cameron County most pristine cold-water streams, Norfolk Southern and DEP, by both sides' accounts, have worked side-by-side in the collection of the scientific data needed to assess the extent of environmental and aquatic damage.

Norfolk Southern has hired environmental engineers to collect independent data, while DEP scientists have conducted their own research. The two parties have been sharing the results of their work.

Meanwhile, the Pa. Fish & Boat Commission has been investigating, as have the Cameron County and McKean County district attorneys. Those three agencies are expected to file criminal charges against the rail company.

At issue is the degree to which Norfolk Southern must go to remediate a large tract of land, two tiny adjacent streams and the larger waterways into which they flow.

A Norfolk Southern train and 30 railcars careened out of control on the "Keating Summit grade" on the morning of June 30. A violent crash at the bottom of the hill caused three rail tanker cars to split open, releasing roughly 42,000 gallons of sodium hydroxide into Big Fill Run, a tiny mountain tributary that flows under the railway from the east side of the tracks.

That rush of chemicals, roughly the amount of water in an Olympic-sized pool, destroyed a large swath of wetlands on its way to the slightly larger Portage Run. Within hours, the chemical had made its way into the Sinnemahoning Portage Creek and the Driftwood Branch of the Sinnemahoning River.