MULTIPLE VIOLATIONS BRING $575,000 FINE AGAINST NORFOLK SOUTHERN FROM DEP
PITTSBURGH – The Department of Environmental Protection announced today that Norfolk Southern Railway Company will pay $575,000 in fines for multiple incidents dating back to September 2003 that violated the Clean Streams Law, the Hazardous Sites Cleanup Act, the Air Pollution Control Act and the Solid Waste Management Act.
The incidents include three train derailments in Allegheny, Beaver and Westmoreland counties and two diesel fuel leaks that contaminated the soil and surface water in Beaver and Washington counties.
“These accidents have disrupted the lives of area residents and came at the expense of the commonwealth’s rivers, land and air,” said Southwest Regional Director Kenneth Bowman. “Norfolk Southern must take responsibility when its operations pollute the environment.”
The first train derailment happened Jan. 5, 2004, when 14 hopper cars and two engines went off the tracks and emptied 600 gallons of lubricating oil, 3,000 gallons of diesel fuel and 1,360 tons of shelled corn into the Kiskimenietas River in Bell Township, Westmoreland County.
Less than one year later, a 19-car derailment forced the evacuation of 200 residents after two tanker cars containing anhydrous hydrogen fluoride, or AHF, landed in the Allegheny River on Jan. 31, 2005, in East Deer Township, Allegheny County. AHF is a caustic, concentrated gas that turns into hydrofluoric acid when mixed with water.
Then, on Oct. 20, 2006, approximately 150 New Brighton, Beaver County, residents were evacuated after a fiery 23-car derailment dumped 485,000 gallons of denatured ethanol into the Beaver River. At the time of the spill, water samples showed evidence of ethanol and its additives downstream on the New Brighton side of the Ohio River.
In addition to the monetary penalty, Norfolk Southern will continue clean-up and remediation activities at the New Brighton crash site. Work th