PORTLAND, Maine — A judge on Tuesday approved a request from the estate of the bankrupt Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway to abandon property at Northern Maine Junction that contains a pile of railroad ties treated with creosote, a likely carcinogen.
The approval comes after an agreement between the estate and the Maine Department of Environmental Protection allowing the state regulatory agency to claim from the estate expenses related to testing or other remediation work up to $15,000, according to court records.
The motion does not specify who would receive the property, but does state the 5.5-acre parcel may be subject to mortgages from both the Federal Railroad Administration and the Maine Department of Transportation.
The move takes the property out of the bankruptcy estate and back into the hands of the debtor corporation, which is being reorganized under Chapter 11 of the federal bankruptcy code.
The property in question is one small portion of the international bankruptcy reorganization stemming from the oil train crash that killed 48 people in Lac-Megantic, Quebec, in July 2013.
Local officials and state environmental regulators have expressed concern about health hazards posed by the creosote-treated railroad ties. The DEP raised concerns about long-term environmental harms and local officials have raised concerns about railroad ties along tracks being set ablaze in the event of grass fires, typically in the spring.
In approving the order to abandon, the court had to agree with bankruptcy trustee Robert Keach that the railroad ties do not pose an imminent threat to human health.
The most common type of creosote comes from coal tar, which the International Agency for Research on Cancer has found is likely carcinogenic to humans. Rats and mice that ingested small amounts of creosote over a long time developed kidney and liver problems, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.