Lake City, Minn.-An anhydrous ammonia tank car that started leaking while part of an Iowa Chicago & Eastern Railroad (IC&E) train caused the evacuation of 100 or more Lake City residents and closed a highway to traffic on March 17. No injuries were reported, but there were reports of some residents complaining of feeling sick, while others had headaches and nausea. IC&E officials are continuing to determine the cause of the leak, which was apparently due to failure of the tanker cap. Contacted in Sioux Falls, S.D., IC&E spokesman Jafar Karim said he didn’t know how much ammonia had leaked from the tanker, but city officials said in a press release that there were 28,000 gallons in the car and it took emergency crews about seven hours to cap and seal off the leak. Karim provided an email statement reporting both rail crew and local incident response personnel reacted immediately to the situation to contain the leak and mitigate impacts. The statement said the car, which belongs to a customer, started venting early Saturday morning while the train was operating on Canadian Pacific Railway tracks in Minnesota. The statement said the crew moved the train to a more remote location two miles south of the city and then later to a siding, where the contents were successfully transferred.
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