Derailed train had carried paint waste

Friday, Jan. 21, 2005 | 9:30 a.m.

Union Pacific has changed its explanation about the contents of railroad cars that were part of a train that derailed during the recent flooding in Southern Nevada.

After announcing Wednesday that eight of the railroad cars contained contaiminated soil, a Union Pacific official on Thursday said that information was wrong. The cars were packed with drums of paint wastes from California on the way to a Utah landfill, Union Pacific spokesman John Bromley said Thursday.

"I was told it was contaminated soils, but it turned out to be paint waste," Bromley said.

All of the drums are intact and the freight cars are upright and remain on a side track separate from the main line, Bromley said.

Bromley did not know where the paint wastes came from or which of six certified landfills in Utah was the destination.

EnviroCare, a northern Utah company that accepts both hazardous and low-level radioactive wastes, was not expected to receive such a shipment, spokesman Mark Walker said.

"That's hazardous waste, but we have no record for it," Walker said. Any shipments of hazardous waste have descriptions of the materials and extensive shipping records with the carrier whether it is a train or truck, he said.

The federal Environmental Protection Agency, Region 9 in San Francisco, had not been notified of the hazardous paint shipment.

"Union Pacific does not have to report a derailment unless there is a spill," EPA spokesman Mark Merchant said.

If the rail company requests help in clearing away the eight cars with the paint waste and six other cars containing chemical residues, the EPA is ready to assist, Merchant said.

"They (Union Pacific) have a fairly good track record, excuse the pun, of getting their cars back on track," Merchant said.

The damaged tracks of the siding, about 70 miles north of Las Vegas where the 55-car derailed train is located, is not preventing the Union Pacific from resuming some freight shipments between Los Angeles and Salt Lake City on Monday.

A train loaded with coal is scheduled to head from Utah for a Nevada Power Co. plant sometime Monday, Bromley said. The siding, a short section of railroad track connected by switches with a main track, has not been repaired yet, Bromley said.

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 north of Las Vegas.

The rugged desert canyon where the freight train was parked was one of five Union Pacific routes severely damaged by a record winter storm earlier this month.

The narrow canyon churned with floodwaters that washed the roadbed out from under the tracks in numerous places and damaged bridges and signals as well, Bromley said.

Six cars on the sidelined train derailed, but they were all empty except for one carrying microwave ovens, Bromley said.

Another six tankers remained on the tracks containing residues of chlorine, sulfuric acid and liquified petroleum gas in them, Bromley said.

No chemicals or paint wastes had leaked from any of the cars, he said.

Rail crews had parked the derailed train on a siding two weeks ago after track was damaged near Caliente, 130 miles north of Las Vegas. With more recent floods, tracks were washed out from under the train and damages were more extensive.