Train crash: 1 year later
Stream recovering; NFS contesting DEP suit, engineer facing trial

Today (above) the bottom of the Portage Sinnemahoning Creek is starting to regain its old, familiar appearance, with algae reappearing on rocks and minnows congregating in the shallows. A year ago, neither was present in this location, one mile below the spill site.

Saturday marks the one-year anniversary of an environmental tragedy that continues to leave its mark on Cameron County waterways.

A Norfolk Southern train traveling south along the grade from Keating Summit to Gardeau derailed in McKean County. Three tanker cars ruptured, spilling more than 40,000 gallons sodium hydroxide - or lye - much of which entered Big Fill Run, a tributary of the Sinnemahoning Portage Creek.

During the next day and a half the slug of pollution traveled down the Portage Creek, Driftwood Branch, and Sinnemahoning Creek, leaving a wake of devastation for upwards of 35 miles downstream. It was one of the worst chemical spills in Pennsylvania history.

Environmental officials observed that the spill could not have occurred in a worse spot. Sinnemahoning Portage Creek was an Exceptional Value stream, the highest water quality ranking available. It was also managed as a Class A Wild Trout Stream. Downstream, the section of the Driftwood Branch affected by the spill was one of the most popular bass and stocked trout fisheries in the state.

There were heavy fish kills in Sinnemahoning Portage Creek and the Driftwood Branch. To a lesser extent, there was a fish kill on the upper reaches Sinnemahoning Creek, more than 30 miles below where the spill occurred.

Surveys showed that the aquatic bug communities on the Portage had been destroyed. Although a few of the most tolerant organisms were present on the lower end of the Portage, the upper end was void of any organisms.

As workers began neutralizing with citric acid the remaining sodium hydroxide that was leaching out of the ground, water chemistry in the affected streams returned to normal.

Today, on the anniversary of the spill, in many ways the Sinnemahoning Creek watershed has recovered. In other aspects, it will still be several years before the streams return to normal.

Thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands, of fish were poisoned when lye leaked from an overturned train down through Big Fill Run (bottom) and into the Sinnemahoning Portage Creek.

In the absence of any significant fish predation, most aquatic bug populations such as mayflies in the Portage have recolonized the stream and their numbers have rebounded considerably.

In the Driftwood Branch, where aquatic insect populations were not significantly harmed, aquatic bug populations have flourished in the last year. As a result of the heavy fish kill, there weren't any predators for the mayfly and stonefly nymphs and larva of other species until trout were stocked in March.

Lacking in any significant numbers from both streams are the gamefish and minnow species that naturally reproduce. Some are beginning to recolonize the streams from areas unaffected by the spill, but these fish are few compared to the numbers that used to inhabit the stream.

State environmental officials say they're confident that Portage Creek and Driftwood Branch will return to their former glory. Wild fish populations will rebound and, in time, the streams will even regain the larger, older fish that used to be present.

In the meantime, legal proceedings continue. Norfolk Southern has contested the $8.9 million civil suit placed on it by DEP last October. The suit is tentatively scheduled to go before a judge in September of 2008. Details on the Pa. Fish and Boat Commission criminal charges against Norfolk Southern have not yet been made public.

A stakeholders group has been formed to identify projects on which to spend a portion of the fine money. This funding could help to improve stream habitat, reduce stream erosion and overheating through streamside tree plantings, and address acid mine drainage problems in the Driftwood Branch watershed in Cameron and McKean counties.

The man engineering the train at the time of derailment will face trial in McKean County next month.

Emporium attorney Paul Malizia plans to mount a rigorous defense for his client 46-year-old Mike Seifert of Buffalo, N.Y., who has opted to stand trial rather than enter a plea to charges in the case.

Seifert is charged with causing a catastrophe, risking a catastrophe and recklessly endangering another person. He remains free on $20,000 bail.