Rockwood Maine USA - The Maine Department of Environmental Protection has notified CPKC of its dissatisfaction with clean-up efforts following last week's derailment and fire involving a CPKC train in northern Maine, and warned it could step in to take over that cleanup at the railroad's expense.
 
Three crew members were injured when three locomotives and nine cars of a CPKC train derailed and caught fire in Sandwich Academy Grant Township, near Rockwood, Maine, on 15 Apr 2023 because of a washout.
 
Thursday's letter to a railroad official in New York came from Melanie Loyzim, commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection.
 
It said the agency would prefer "to continue to work with CPKC in addressing the cleanup in a prompt, efficient, and coordinated manner" and expects the railroad to act "to avoid any need for enforcement action."
 
The letter says the railroad "failed to meet Department expectations regarding timing and response of clean-up activities in order to effectively mitigate impacts to the environment and public health."
 
Some directives issued by the department have not been addressed, the letter says, including a failure to empty fuel tanks of derailed locomotives before they were moved to avoid further spillage, and a timely removal of tank cars containing hazardous material.
 
Those tank cars were part of the train's consist, but did not derail, or discharge any of their contents.
 
WABI-TV reports that the DEP estimates 500 gallons of diesel fuel spilled because the railroad did not follow directives, and that the two cars of hazardous material were not removed from the site until Thursday.
 
Author unknown.