The derailment happened about 11 p.m. Tuesday, about three miles from Brownsville in Houston County.
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“For a train derailment, it was basically lucky”.
Equipment is in place to pump the oil out of the derailed tank cars as soon as the railroad can bring in empty tankers to hold it. Canadian Pacific say it plans to empty three tankers Thursday and the other three today.
Canadian Pacific is handling the clean-up process. Crews are working to unload the soybean oil into new cars before removing the tankers from the river.
As explained by David Morrison, on-scene coordinator at the United States Environmental Protection Agency, vegetable oil behaves similarly with petroleum when it’s poured into the water. The cars were carrying soy bean oil.
Six cars derailed south of Brownsville and up to eight cars behind the derailment are unstable. Two train cars went through the ice and into the water.
That substance is approximately 30 to 50 times more perilous than regular table salt when it comes into contact with algae and other plants, and it can poison aquatic animals as well.
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The Federal Railroad Administration had inspectors on the scene, though it could take months to determine a cause, said deputy regional administrator Michael Bodah. The track runs parallel to the Mississippi River near Minnesota Highway 26.
