Bob Wise: “this weekend was quite an eventful one in West Virginia in the Cabell County area where we had another hazardous…”

“this weekend was quite an eventful one in West Virginia in the Cabell County area where we had another hazardous materials derailment. This is the second one in a little over a year in that area. Happily there were no fatalities. A limited number of people were hospitalized briefly. A hundred families will have to be evacuated and most of them will be back today. Beginning yesterday, I was in personal contact with the National Transportation Safety Board team in the area, as well as the FRA. I have just spoken personally this morning with the National Transportation Safety Board team. At this point, the cause of this accident is still unknown. Of the roughly 150 railcars, 34 of them derailed, a couple of chemical tanker cars punctured, and formaldehyde and chlorine were released. Their focus is presently looking at one hopper car to see whether it could have had some problems, and the track is yet to be inspected in that area. The mechanical problems, to the extent there might have been some, are still to be examined. The good news is that the emergency response teams that arrived did exactly the right things. They made the decisions that needed to be made and evacuated the families that needed to be evacuated. Of course, we will continue to dig out from this for a period of time. The immediate concern is what happens to the groundwater. Most of the homes in that area are on wells and that will have to be evaluated closely.”