MOUNT CARBON, W.Va. — The federal EPA issued an order Friday that says CSX must continue to clean-up and restore the area of Fayette County impacted by the Feb. 16 train derailment.
The EPA said CSX has worked with the Unified Command since the derailment on the initial clean-up near Mount Carbon where 27 cars derailed.
The EPA said CSX must:
*Continue air and water monitoring and testing;
*Contain and recover oil on Armstrong Creek, the Kanawha River and their tributaries and the adjoining shorelines;
*Regularly inspect the boom located along the river to capture the residual oily water as ice continues to melt;
*Maintain the integrity of the metal sheet pile wall that creates a barrier between the rail line and the Kanawha River to allow the recovery of oil to continue;
*Provide education to residents about the potential effects from the incident including potential health threats, protective measures, wildlife preservation, and claims and notification procedures;
*Conduct long-term monitoring of Armstrong Creek, the Kanawha River and their adjoining shorelines to detect oil that may be discharged from area facilities;
*Report to EPA and West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection on progress and confirm compliance with the approved plan;
*Respond immediately, if another threat to public health or welfare occurs while implementing the order; and
*Conduct long–term monitoring for air quality and testing for ground water, surface water and shorelines to ensure that the cleanup and restoration remain effective.
Meanwhile, CSX resumed a normal schedule on the repaired tracks Friday and that includes more trains carrying Bakkan oil.
“It’s part of the freight that goes over that line,” CSX Spokesman Gary Sease told MetroNews Friday. “Those shipments, along with all the other freight we haul, have resumed.”
The rebuilt line, just a few miles from Montgomery, reopened Thursday afternoon.
Contract crews with specialized equipment and skills removed the twisted metal of the burned out cars and then had to remove all of the oil affected soil from the site before rebuilding the railroad’s bed. The tracks were laid again to complete the repairs.
“We had a lot of traffic that had to be rerouted while that line was closed, but now normal operations are resuming on that line,” Sease said.
The track is one of the main east-west lines for CSX freight. Sease added it is a particularly vital link for shipping central Appalachian coal to the docks at Norfolk and Newport News, Va. for export.