Burlington Northern Sante Fe officials say they’ve built a temporary road to the site of Friday’s train derailment along a flooded stretch of tracks near the Lyon-Sioux county line in northwest Iowa. While 32 cars derailed, B-N-S-F spokesman Andy Williams says 14 of them leaked some 230-thousand gallons of crude oil into the flooded fields. Clean-up operations have been underway around the clock.
At least ten cars have already been drained, and seven were moved to that nearby field to be disassembled. Williams says they’re trying to contain all of the spilled crude.
Skimmers and booms were placed near the derailment site which Williams says have already captured at least 100-thousand gallons of oil.
Williams says the clean-up process may take several days, possibly weeks or months. He says oil may have stretched up to five miles from the derailment site. He had no estimate on the cost of the clean-up.
