State
2 years later, toxic situation lingers Spill left family unable to plant
Greenwood Commonwealth
It’s been a little over two years since a train derailed and spilled a toxic chemical on farm land between Philipp and Minter City, and it still stinks, say the landowners.
Floyd Melton III, brother Moss Melton and their father, Floyd Melton Jr., all Greenwood attorneys, own 400 acres at the crash site affected by the spill.
On March 30, 2015, 10 cars of the southbound Illinois Central freight train went off the rails near the
Tallahatchie County line shortly before 8 p.m.
One of the cars, a tanker carrying 22,000 gallons of heavy resins, including a highly flammable chemical called dicyclopentadiene, spilled 17,000 gallons onto the ground adjacent to the tracks, according to Melton. Dicyclopentadiene is used to make paints, adhesives and inks.
Heavy rains flushed containment pits in the following days and sent the substance flowing downstream, across fields and into surrounding woodlands.
The Meltons say that two years later, Illinois Central railroad, owned by CN — the same company that had two trains crash and derail at Money last week — still hasn’t cleaned up the spill and debris on their land.
“When it’s dry, you can walk across it and not smell it,” said Melton III. “But dig down just below the
surface, and you can smell that stuff 20 to 30 feet downwind. You wouldn’t believe how bad it smells.”
There was no fire and no one was hurt in the derailment, but the land surrounding the 50-foot-wide
railroad right of way was left pitted from heavy equipment, littered with metal fragments and still
permeated with the stinky toxic chemical.
“We don’t know if it’s safe to plant,” Melton III said.
Until the spill, the Meltons rented their land to David and Danny Hargett’s farming operation, McMillan Acres.
Danny Hargett said his company grew corn, cotton and soybeans on the land, and the fields were prepared for planting when the spill occurred.
“The train wreck knocked us out, and we can’t put a crop back in until we get approval,” Hargett said.
That approval would come from the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality and possibly other agencies, showing that a safe crop can be grown on the Meltons’ land. A safe crop would not cause harm if consumed by humans or by livestock intended for human consumption and would not contaminate products harvested elsewhere that may be stored in the same bins or shipped in the same containers.
Both the Hargetts and the Meltons have experienced lost revenue due to the spill. They are now into the third growing season with no crop on the land.
Soil samplings from across the area have continued to show levels of far more than the suggested safe level for dicyclopentadiene of 1.3 milligrams per kilogram, according to the Meltons. They say ground water has been affected as well.
Several areas mapped by Illinois Central have shown significantly higher levels of the chemical in the soil and ground water. One ground water sample had a level more than 1,000 times the acceptable level.
MDEQ has been involved in the cleanup since the beginning and continues to monitor the situation. Melton III said they have done all they can with limited personnel and resources.
Still, despite testing that confirmed contamination in the soil and ground water, the railroad hasn’t hauled any contaminated dirt or done any cleaning in two years. During last fall’s extended dry spell, the family expected
to see clean-up crews on the land, but no work was done.
The Meltons have been given no explanation of what happened to cause the derailment. They have
observed, however, that crews were recently on site replacing the rails along the same track where the accident occurred. The same section of rail had already been replaced immediately after the spill.
Beyond the continued presence of the toxic chemical, the Meltons said clean-up measures by the railroad just after the accident included cutting up pieces of the derailed cars, including the punctured tanker, and bulldozing them over, effectively embedding them in the soil of the cultivated field surrounding the tracks.
“If you try to farm over that, you’ll tear up the equipment,” Melton III said. “The railroad has said they’ll reimburse the farmer for the cost of a flat tire, but that’s not a solution.
“When farmers are rushing to get their seed planted or to get their crop harvested, they don’t have time to stop to repair tires or to replace their planter.”
Instead, the Meltons have continued to demand that Illinois Central remove the hazardous materials and debris from the field.
In the initial cleanup, the railroad brought in soil to replace the areas it dug up in the recovery effort, but the Meltons say they brought in red clay mixed with gravel and put it on top of rich Delta soil. The family says it wants all non-native soils removed and replaced with appropriate soils to restore the land’s proper drainage and viability for farming.
According to the Meltons, the railroad is supposed to present a plan to MDEQ for removal of all of the contaminant, removal of all the wood, metal and plastic debris strewn over the site, removal of foreign soils and continued testing of the ground water to make sure it’s clean. That can sometimes require years of monitoring water wells.
MDEQ is requiring that the railroad come up with a suitable plan by May 26. The railroad has scheduled more soil and water sampling beginning today.
In addition to this sampling, the Meltons have hired independent environmental engineers, drilling operators and laboratory technicians to take and test additional samples later this month to ensure that the property has been adequately tested. Requests for more thorough testing by the Meltons’ hired environmental engineers have been mostly rejected or ignored by the railroad.
“We felt it was necessary to pay for our own testing at the site,” Floyd Melton III said.
“They should have done it right in the first place. We just want them to clean it up properly and make us whole.”
Meanwhile the cleanup at the Money crash site where two trains derailed last week is ongoing.
CN’s spokesman told the Commonwealth last week that the railroad clean-up crew mixed the remainder of some 20,000 to 30,000 gallons of crude oil spilled there with gin trash to make it solid and movable. The spilled oil caught on fire following the crash and an unknown amount of it burned off.
On Sunday, piles of the oil and gin trash mix were covered with tarp, sitting on the side of County Road 518. Down
the way, a pile of twisted and cut-up metal from the wrecked cars stood, waiting to be hauled away.
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“In order to achieve both environmental protection and economic prosperity, we must give the regulated community, which includes farmers and ranchers, adequate time to come into compliance with regulations. Extending the timeline for implementation of this rule will enable EPA to consult with states, assist with education, training and guidance, and prevent unnecessary burdens from overshadowing the rule’s intended benefits,”
said Administrator Pruitt.
Last month, Administrator Pruitt met with Missouri Governor Eric Greitens to discuss the C&T rule, among other issues.
"Administrator Pruitt proved today that the old way of doing business at the EPA is over and done with. We presented them with a problem, and they took quick action to begin fixing it. Missouri farmers have waited a long time for common sense government, and now it's on its way. I'm grateful for this new leadership, and look forward to continuing to work with this administration to curb regulations that are killing jobs and hurting our farmers. It's time for government to get out of the way and let our farmers farm,”
said Governor Greitens. “We greatly appreciate EPA extending the effective date of this rule. While we are supportive of the improved final rule released in January, States are facing a range of on-going logistical, resource, and capacity challenges. These challenges are amplified as they also implement other recent EPA requirements, such as the Worker Protection Standard. Extending the certification timeline will help alleviate some of those challenges by allowing states to work with our EPA partners to ensure adequate training resources and compliance assistance activities,”
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GOV. PHIL BRYANT REQUESTS FEDERAL DISASTER DECLARATION
JACKSON – Gov. Phil Bryant has requested President Donald Trump declare a major disaster for nine counties from the severe weather, tornadoes and flooding that hit Mississippi on April 30, 2017.
Based on joint preliminary damage assessment results conducted by local officials, the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Gov. Bryant requested the declaration of individual assistance for Holmes and Montgomery counties.
The damage assessments confirmed 112 homes in those two counties were either destroyed or sustained major damage and had no insurance.
Public Assistance is being requested for Adams, Calhoun, Carroll, Claiborne, Holmes, Jefferson, Montgomery, Webster and Yazoo counties, which is reimbursement to local governments and non-profit organizations, for things like damage to infrastructure, debris removal and overtime to responders.
If the President grants the request, additional counties may be added to the declaration, pending further damage assessments.
“With more than 25 counties reporting some form of damage on April 30th, this was truly a widespread severe weather event,” said Gov. Bryant. “Most of the survivors will need federal assistance to help them rebuild and recover, and the counties I’ve requested were the hardest hit.”
The Governor’s Office, along with the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency, will provide an update on the status of the request, once it has been reviewed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
For more information, visit MEMA’s website at
www.msema.org. or you can “Like” MEMA on Facebook, or “Follow” us on Twitter and Snapchat.
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