About 12,000 gallons of bakken crude oil leaked from a Canadian Pacific Railway train in southeastern Minnesota on Monday.
While officials at the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency said they would investigate the cause of the spill, which they believed was a valve or cap problem, the agency said there would be no major cleanup effort planned — much to chagrin of locals and environmentalists.
“The leak started in Red Wing and stopped about 2 miles south of Winona where they found the problem and corrected it,” said Kurt Bittle, Fire Chief of the City of Winona. “But between Red Wing and Winona we’ve had quite an oil spill.”
According to the MPCA, the amount of crude oil spilled was actually quite minimal, since one single tanker carries about 26,000 gallons of oil, and the spill was spread out across almost 70 miles of land.
“It’s like it spray-painted oil,” said MPCA spokeswoman Cathy Rofshus, adding that there were no reported pools of oil.
Rofshus pledged that the agency would continue to monitor the area’s conditions and would reassess any environmental damage if larger pools of oil are found or if the oil threatens any water sources.
“The main goal of the MPCA today is to protect any waters from contamination as the railroad tracks cross the Zumbro and Cannon rivers, as well as Wells Creek, along with close proximity to wetlands, including Weaver Bottoms,” Rofshus said.
“Initial reconnaissance found only a spattering of oil across Wells Creek north of Lake City,” she said, adding that MPCA staff were still examining critical areas such as river crossings and were discussing whether to send out staff once the snow melts to look for oil sheen and runoff.
Ed Greenberg, spokesman for Canadian Pacific, said the leaky tanker has since been pulled from service, and that the company would cooperate with any cleanup efforts if required.
“All indications are the product remained between the rails,” Greenberg said. “Any potential mitigation actions will take place if identified.”
Talking to a local paper in Winona, David Morrison, a member of the MPCA emergency response team, said the spill was very pronounced along the railroad tracks, which he said could have been a result of the increased snow cover, and the fact that the train was traveling slower through the city.
According to Bittle, it’s a good thing Minnesota is in the middle of another arctic blast, since the cold temperatures suppressed the flammability issues related to oil spills.
“It’s a flammable product,” he said. “Thank God for the snow cover and the amount of snow that was within the ballast area of the tracks. That absorbed a lot of it … This would probably be a different incident if it was 95 degrees out.”
Though the spilled oil largely ended up between the train tracks, there are areas where the tracks and pedestrian walkways intersect. Since the substance is slippery, the Winona Fire Department has treated some areas with a product called “floor dry.” Bittle added that’s not a long-term solution.
“We don’t have enough floor dry in the entire city of Winona to take care of the incident within our jurisdiction boundaries,” Bittle said. “So that’s going to have to fall upon [Canadian Pacific] Rail to do the actual mitigation.”
He explained that unlike crude oil, bakken oil is a little bit lighter and smells slightly different, which has been confusing for some community members.
Greenberg said the MPCA had determined some cleanup efforts were required on the rail track bed in Winona, and that the company would be taking care of this week.
Whether there will be clean-up efforts for the rest of the track where the spill occurred has yet to be determined, and until MPCA finishes its investigation, no fines or citations will be issued.