BUCKSPORT, Maine — The Maine Department of Environmental Protection is estimating that 4,000 to 6,000 gallons of a chemical used to make coated paper spilled into the Penobscot River when several train tanker cars derailed in Bucksport on Friday.
And while the chemical is not believed to be hazardous, DEP officials said department staff will monitor the site to determine if any harm to wildlife or aquatic life results from the spill.
Four cars in a 31-car train derailed Friday night on a stretch of Pan Am Railways track near the Bucksport/Orrington town line. There were no injuries in the incident, but at least two of the cars tumbled down the embankment and into the Penobscot River.
Pan Am officials acknowledged Saturday that some materials — described as a type of latex — had leaked from two of the tankers but were hesitant to estimate how much before remaining materials could be pumped out and measured.
On Monday, DEP officials estimated that the two cars leaked between 4,000 and 6,000 gallons of a chemical called kaolin onto the ground or directly into the river. A spokesman for Verso Paper’s Bucksport mill, where the train was headed at the time of the derailment, said kaolin is a type of latex used to make coated paper.
In an email to the Bangor Daily News, DEP spokeswoman Samantha DePoy-Warren said kaolin does not have any specific properties that threaten the environment, according to a Material Safety Data Sheet on the chemical. However, guidelines state that it should be kept out of the water, she said.
Crews have been unable to contain the chemical because it sinks in water and because of the presence of the overturned tankers and the location of the tankers in the river, DePoy-Warren said.
“It does not appear that the rail cars are still leaking,” she wrote. “So far, responders have not observed any immediate impacts to the river other than the visible milky white and blue discoloration.”
Roughly 200 feet of track had to be replaced after the derailment. Cynthia Scarano, executive vice president at Pan Am Railways, said that the track reopened to rail traffic on Monday afternoon. Now, Pan Am will have to work with the DEP and an environmental cleanup contractor to figure out the best way to remove the overturned tankers.
Scarano said the railroad likely will first bring in empty tankers to offload the remaining kaolin as well as the clay slurry in the two other derailed tankers. Cranes then will be used to remove the overturned cars, hopefully by Friday, Scarano said.
DePoy-Warren said the DEP staff will be on hand to monitor the transfer to minimize additional spillage and will later conduct a “complete assessment — including sediment sampling — to determine any impacts and additional cleanup needed” at the site.
Verso spokesman Bill Cohen said Monday evening that the derailment had no impact on production at the mill.
More chemicals in the Penobscot? Radioactive chemicals, no less? Oh well, at least the mill’s production didnt suffer.
There’s nothing radioactive about the chemicals those cars were carrying. What would a paper mill do with radioactive materials? There’s nothing radioactive in kaolin. As the article states, kaolin is a form of latex.
kaolinite is mixed with a latex or starch and sprayed on paper to provide the glossy coatings seen in magazines and other high quality publications
http://www.orau.org/PTP/collection/consumer%20products/magazines.htm
“kaolin contains elevated levels of the uranium and thorium.” The article goes on to state that a truck load of magazines would be create enough radiation to “trip a monitor”. Now, I shouldnt have to point this out, but thats a truckload of magazines, simply coated with a thin layer of chemicals, the main component being Kaolin. It was several thousand gallons of the stuff which leaked into the river. Thus, its likely radioactive.
Did you know than those monitors can be tripped if you had a mammogram or x-ray a day or two before? Nice attempt to scare people though.
Kaolin is basically a slurry of kaolinite, a type of clay that is mined in Georgia.
the last I checked, clay is not radioactive…
No? If you packed clay around a rod of Uranium, would the clay not become saturated with radiation and thus become radioactive itself? Im not suggesting this happened, of course, I am just merely pointing out there is a big different between something that is radioactive and something that produces radioactive isotopes.
Don’t believe a word Pam Am says. They are just covering their arse.
http://www.sciencelab.com/msds.php?msdsId=9927200
For the record: kaolin is only a form of white clay used to impart a finish receptive to relatively high resolution color reproduction on certain kinds of cheap paper such as those used in catalogues and in the many tiresome third class mail flyers that clog our mailboxes. It is not latex, a plant sap that is the basis for natural rubber.
For over a century American workers in half a dozen or so poor rural counties in Georgia and South Carolina depended on sales of kaolin to American paper mills to make a living. Now most of them are on welfare because a succession of American presidents starting with Bill Clinton facilitated the export of American jobs overseas. These days the kaolin reaching Maine paper mills such as the one at Bucksport where today’s accident took place is mined in Brazil, imported by a French firm (Imerys), and unloaded at Searsport by a Swedish firm (Sprague Energy).
It’s a race to the bottom!
“kaolin is only a form of white clay used to impart a finish receptive to relatively high resolution color reproduction on certain kinds of “cheap paper”. The paper Bucksport makes is NOT cheap. Light weight coated paper is very expensive to make.
I agree!!!
well said. I’m against the free trade agreement and allowing american jobs to go over seas and pay their workers nothing!! We are on our way the the third world expectations!
I was wondering when people were going to figure out, it’s just white clay that seeped out!
Maybe it will coat the river bottom and prevent any more of the mercury from the defunct Holtra Chem site from getting into environment.
Sarcasm alert activated.
I was wondering why my dog’s coat seem to have a glossy luster to it after swimming in the river this weekend at Sandy Point Beach.
Sux that anything was spilled but Kaolin is better than caustic or 6 oil
Where are all the Rail Road advocates telling us the glories of rail service instead of highway transportation?
Where is the EPA, MDEP, OSHA? I would think that they would be all over this in a flash. Demanding that the rail line be shut down until it is rebuilt and safe.
I’m surprised that no one has complained about 18 wheelers being overloaded on this article. Even though it’s a rail accident that shouldn’t deter the naysayers. “Never let facts get in the way. Never let a good crisis go to waste.”
Funny how the new article now doesn’t mention how Pan Am said there was no spill at first, like it was originally reported. Oh, well, revisionist history is acceptable.
I would recommend bringing back the CCC to repair and update all rail lines in the country or…………….for all the folks that are physically able to work and cant find a job………….
Cant repair garbage just throw it away.
This is paper chemical’s. Look down the track’s and see what’s going to happen with Bald Mountain. Enjoy the view !
TOUR GUIDE: Welcome to the nastiest stretch of the Penobscot River…Starting in Hampden with the Chevron storage tanks that has leaks massive amounts of oil products, moving on down to the Holtrachem plant in Orrington that has polluted the water and ground soil with tons of mercury, and now the newest addition, 6000 gallons of Latex. No more fish to be found, and if you catch one its probably not safe to eat….WELCOME TO THE PENOBSCOT RIVER!
Time to send this rolling pile of junk metal along with the tracks to China and make a few bucks on scrap. The Chinese have Bullet Trains and Maine has non stop derailments and 5 mph junkyards on wheels they call trains. Funny Pan Am never mentioned a chemical spill in the first article.
Oh no, time to ban paper….LOL..