Derailed Oil Train Takes Out Wastewater System In Oregon

By Sara Jerome,
@sarmje

An oil train derailed in Oregon’s Columbia River Gorge on Friday, raising concerns about nearby water service and knocking the wastewater system completely out of function in the town of Mosier.

Mosier lost access to its sewer system and wastewater treatment plant as a result of the incident, which saw 16 of the train’s 96 tank cars go off the rails, according to the Associated Press. A fire in several cars was extinguished on Saturday.

“The town's sewer system remains shut off. And the aquifers are dry, leaving the city's 430 residents without water reserves on a day projected to hit record high temperatures,” The Oregonian reported. Crews drained the aquifers to cool the trains.

Residents were warned not to flush their toilets after the crash. It remains unclear how long it will take to fix the sewer system.

"Oil has gotten into the sewage system," Mayor Arlene Burns said, per The Oregonian. "That means we can't discharge the normal things. None of that can go into the river now. Some people are flushing their toilets, which is problematic because there isn't a place for it to go."

Burns said crews are working to install a vault “to hold the sewage until it can be pumped to a plant,” The Oregonian reported. The derailment will mean locals must ration their water and sewer use, she said.

Officials are “conducting continuous water and air monitoring,” the AP reported.

“Residents of Mosier were being asked to boil any water they used for drinking or cooking, as a precaution. Authorities were working to clean up an oil sheen in the Columbia River near the scene of the derailment, while the oil inside the remaining tank cars was being moved to trucks,” it continued.

Judy Smith of the U.S. EPA weighed in, per the AP: "Today's priority is focused on safely restoring essential services to the community of Mosier as soon as possible.”

It appears the train derailed because a fastener between the railroad tie and the line failed, the AP reported in an additional article.

For similar stories visit Water Online’s Sewers And Sewer Line Maintenance Solutions Center.

Image credit:"6 Photos of the E-Units on the Director's Special, March 1980," Marty Bernard © 2016, under public domain: Mark 1.0: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/