Thursday, Jan. 20, 2005 | 10:51 a.m.
In addition to six rail cars with hazardous materials residue in them, the train that that derailed after flooding washed out the tracks last week included eight cars containing contaminated soils on the way to a Utah landfill.
The damaged tracks of the siding, about 70 miles northeast of Las Vegas where the 55-car derailed train is located, won't stop the Union Pacific railroad from resuming some freight shipments between Los Angeles and Salt Lake City next week.
A coal train heading for a Nevada Power Company plant could leave Utah as soon as Monday, although the siding (a short section of railroad track connected by switches with a main track) has not been repaired yet, Union Pacific spokesman John Bromley said Wednesday.
The coal train was loaded near Provo, Utah, and is expected to deliver its load at the Reid Gardner Station, owned by Nevada Power, 45 miles northeast of Las Vegas in Moapa Valley, sometime next week, Bromley said.
"We're shooting for an opening Monday, a partial opening," Bromley said.
The rugged desert canyon northeast of Las Vegas was one of five Union Pacific routes severely damaged by a record winter storm earlier this month.
The narrow canyon churned floodwaters that washed the roadbed out from under the tracks in numerous places and damaged bridges and signals, Bromley said.
The six cars that derailed were empty, except for one carrying microwave ovens, Bromley said.
Six other cars remaining on the tracks contained residues of chlorine, sulfuric acid and liquified petroleum gas in them, Bromley said.
Another eight cars also remaining upright contained contaminated soil removed from an industrial site in California. Bromley said he did not know what chemicals or hazardous materials the soil contained. The hazardous- soil cars were heading to one of six licensed hazardous-materials landfills in Utah.
No chemicals or contaminated soil leaked from any of the cars. Freight trains routinely carry contaminated cargo and chemicals nationwide.
"It's not of any risk to anybody," Bromley said of the sidelined train. "Those cars did not derail."
The only cars that did derail in the flood were empty, except for one filled with microwave ovens, Bromley said.
Rail crews had parked the derailed train on a siding two weeks ago after track was damaged near Caliente, 130 miles northeast of Las Vegas. With more recent floods, tracks were washed out from under the train.
The Nevada Public Utilities Commission's safety division was overseeing track repairs at the remote canyon, spokeswoman Rebecca Wagner said Wednesday. The state PUC inspects trains passing through Nevada.
The Nevada Division of Environmental Protection sent a preliminary assessment team to investigate the derailed train last week, Las Vegas NDEP manager Tim Murphy said.
There were no leaks and nothing that posed an immediate public or environmental threat, Murphy said.
"The only time we would get involved is if there was a spill," Murphy said.
The state had been informed by the railroad that the sidelined freight train contained asphalt, wheat, a carload of microwave ovens and the rest of the cars were empty, Murphy said. Nothing spilled into the Muddy River, which flooded.
"I think, luckily, this was not of significance," Murphy said. "Rails are far safer than me driving from my office to my home."
All the repair work on tracks in the West could take weeks or months to complete, Bromley said.
Round-the-clock work on the line between Salt Lake City, Las Vegas and Los Angeles will result in partial service next week, a Union Pacific statement said. The line averages 25 trains per day and is one of two primary routes linking Los Angeles and Las Vegas to the Midwest, Bromley said.
Seven work trains are hauling rock to fill the washouts at both ends of the canyon.
Flooding last week damaged an 80-mile stretch of track near the Utah border. The heaviest damage occurred in a narrow canyon south of Caliente. Complicating repair work, floodwaters also washed away access roads in the steep canyon, road that have to be repaired in order to reach the tracks that collapsed when the roadbed was swept out from under the rails.
As part of the repairs, rail workers will build a new bridge to replace the Cottonwood Wash Bridge, which was buried under as much as six feet of mud and rock during the flooding. The track will be raised by 10 feet in that area.
Trains carrying vital materials, such as liquid chlorine to disinfect drinking water, have been routed from Salt Lake City to Reno and through California on alternate tracks, Bromley said. Salt from Utah was shipped the long way to a Henderson industrial complex for making chlorine disinfectant.
"Chlorine is very important in treating municipal drinking water," Bromley said. The salt had priority for delivery on alternative tracks, he added.
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