About 2 weeks ago, I discovered a small pile of yellow, fine-grained something between the tracks. No - I didn’t touch it, smell it or taste it. It looks to have been left there by a standing freight train with a slow leak. Maybe a form of sulpher?
Anyway - it is still there - obviously the birds didn’t eat it, the rain didn’t wash it away and no one cleaned it up. It is within 10 feet of a crossing. This particular area sits on a water table that I don’t think is too deep (Sir Chicken will know) - and I know the fire dept is death on even a teacup of fuel being on the ground because of ground water contamination.
Having said that and running out of breath - is someone responsible for cleaning this up? And in general, what does the railroad do about leaks of something other than “bird seed” that could be a problem for soil and ground water?
Sooner or later the yard cleaner (Kershaw, now Balfour Beatty…or LORAM) will get it in one of it’s semi annual sweeps. If it was nasty stuff, the environmental engineers from Topeka would be all over it.
It could also be yellow coloring for certain types of plastic, such as HDPE, for example. It should be cleaned up, even if only to keep the enviros quiet!
Or, it could be the plastic itself. How big were the granules? Sand? Torpedo sand? Pea gravel? If a rain didn’t have any effect on the pile, I’m guessing something a little larger than sand (roofing granules, though I’ve never heard of yellow ones), or plastic pellets. I think it would have washed down a pile of sulfur or mustard (which can be shipped in a powder form). There are some grain byproducts that have that color as well, but I think that water or wildlife would have an effect on them.
Another question: was the pile between the rails or outside of them? If outside, it’s more likely to be the plastic pellets, and there probably weren’t many of them. Just about anything that was leaking from a loaded covered hopper would fall between the rails, most likely.
I had seen something like this in February of this year, in a BNSF siding in my home town. There was a large pile of a substance between the rails and it was very fine, almost like sawdust, but it was orange in color. I figure it had spilled out of a covered hopper and I never did find out what it was.
Boy I am glad I hurried back to help out with this! It is fine - think sugar - yellow - think corn meal. JMHX travels through here quite a bit. It is between the rails - It looks exactly as it did right after I discovered it. Hasn’t changed in texture or size. Don’t want to trespass or would look (but not touch) a little closer at it. Not terribly tall - maybe a foot - little pointed mound of it.
I haven’t looked at Mudchix websites, so will go do that whilst you all ponder. I am sure that will bring up other questions - like …
since this is not exactly in a busy yard, but more on the edge of the yard - if there was something that was “disasterous” and only a very small amount of it - (think puddle) of it escaped - but it would naturally drip the rest of the trip - who would know? Who would report it? Who would find it? How would they know what it was? Wait until the car arrived at it destination half-empty? And if it did seep into the ground - as liquids are want to do - is it oh well - rocks roll down hill?
Ed & Carl - when you get here - the pile will probably still be here and we will do a study on it.
Processed Kaolin slurry is blinding white…it is a clay used to make porcelain, china dishes, and coating for top quality paper…
Down here, the limestone can vary from dark tan to a cream color to light yellow…
But when the slurry spills, it usualy puddles up, not piles up, so it sounds like a dry product the Mookie is seeing…you know, it just might be a pile of plastic powder…then again, it might be rocket fuel!
Mookie, will see if Grissom is free that weekend, always wanted to do the CSI thing!
Put on some safety goggles, grab the video camera, be sure you are upwind of the pile, grab a flare, and toss it on the pile and let us know what happens.