Dresbech, Minn.-Canadian Pacific Railway crews cleared most of the wreckage from the rail line near here only a day after two freight trains collided around 5 a.m. Dec. 17 on tracks running alongside the Mississippi River. The accident, which tipped one of the engines into a shallow part of the river, resulted in the spilling of as much as 10,000 to 20,000 gallons of liquid nitrogen fertilizer from one of three derailed tanker cars. Although the situation was contained immediately after the crash and product was being transloaded onto other rail cars, two of the cars shifted and the contents were spilled into the river. The liquid fertilizer had been identified as 35 percent nitrogen, but CP spokesman Mike LoVecchio could not confirm this. A propane tank at a switching station was also reported to have leaked, and some 25 people, most of whom were at a nearby veterans home, were evacuated as a precaution. The wreck was also disrupting passenger train service in this area and traffic on the nearby interstate, but LoVecchio told Green Markets that cleanup crews made encouraging progress overnight at the site so that track reconstruction can begin as soon as possible. He said the two trains, one with two locomotives and the other with three, were at the switch where their tracks come together when the collision occurred, but he said the actual cause is still under investigation by the railroad. The result was that 13 cars from each train derailed, sending one of the engines into a shallow part of the river but landing still upright. “We are monitoring both engines and we have an environmental team on site,” LoVecchio reported. He said two CP employees were taken to the hospital as a precaution, but neither was found to be injured.
Transparency Across the Fertilizer Value-Chain