By Patricia Bogumil
Editor
A device known as a knuckle coupler fell off a freight train traveling on the Wisconsin Central railroad tracks near Honey Creek Sunday evening.
As a result, a second freighter incurred fuel tank damage after hitting the coupler later that evening.
The resulting diesel fuel spill in Waterford township will likely take weeks, if not months, to deal with – plus years of monitoring.
According to Village of Waterford Fire Chief Richard Mueller, the object he and other investigators found – later identified by train personnel as a knuckle coupler – is about 1-1/2 feet x 1-1/2 feet in size and weighs around 150 pounds. “It was a big piece of metal,” Mueller commented.
Knuckle couplers are semi-automatic devices that join a train locomotive to the car behind it and also join each of the cars in a train to each other.
According to the incident report by the Town of Waterford police, the engineer explained his train was traveling northbound when it hit a knuckle coupler lying on the tracks. The coupler was kicked up and pierced a diesel fuel tank located under the first of two locomotives pulling the train.
The damaged train then traveled 0.4 miles before stopping and going into emergency mode with its air lines knocked off.
Train staff reportedly tried to place a patch kit on the fuel tank before police arrived, but the patch would not hold in the remaining fuel due to the size of the rupture. Eventually, the train continued on its way under the power of a different locomotive.
The damaged fuel tank reportedly had a 5,000-gallon capacity and held about 4,000 gallons of diesel fuel at the time of the incident.
Mueller estimated the spill site to be about half a mile south of the sharp turn on Highway 20 that leads north into East Troy and south into Honey Creek/Burlington. The police report lists the location as being at the 78.79 Mile Post.
Emergency response
Sunday evening shortly after 9:30 p.m., the Village of Waterford responded to a report from Canadian Railway police that a train had struck a piece of metal near the Honey Creek crossing, and was leaking diesel fuel.
The tracks are commonly referred to locally as those of Wisconsin Central, which is a subsidiary of the Canadian National Railway.
The Village of Waterford sent out four pieces of equipment and 14 firefighters, working on scene about five hours. Tichigan Volunteer Fire Company was called in and responded with one vehicle and two firefighters, on scene about two hours.
The Racine County Sheriff’s Office also assisted.
Mueller ran a unified command that night with state Department of Natural Resources (DNR) responders, in consultation with Racine County Emergency Government and hazardous materials experts.
A foam blanket was applied to the spill area so the fuel wouldn’t ignite, and a safety perimeter posted so no one could enter the area. Town of Waterford DPW head Ken Hinz and a crew trucked in two loads of sand to help soak up the spill. Jeff Stemper of Waterford Oil removed about 1,620 gallons of diesel fuel from the lead train engine.
But thousands more gallons of diesel fuel spilled out.
Tuesday morning, railway workers and contractors were still working to clean up the site under the direction of the DNR. By Tuesday afternoon, everyone was gone – for a while.
Plan of attack
Jason Lowery, a Spills Response Team Leader with the DNR, said Tuesday that to keep the busy tracks open, crews built a trench next to the tracks on the down gradient side, between the tracks and Honey Creek. Diesel fuel is collecting in the trench and then being pumped out.
Fuel has seeped into the soil, Lowery added. “We’re hoping this will be the fix, but it will be going on for awhile, probably weeks to months,” he said.
His time estimate “is a moving target,” Lowery said, adding that groundwater contamination might possibly need years of monitoring to make sure contaminated water isn’t moving into other areas.
Lowery said he doesn’t believe this week’s fuel seepage will be an issue for homes in the area with well water.
“It’s extremely unlikely fuel would have made it to the private wells in one day,” he explained.
To be safe, homes in the spill area are being surveyed; water samples from two homes near the site were collected and have been sent for analysis for the presence of petroleum compounds, Lowery said. The results of that analysis will take at least 10 days.
Identifying why the coupler fell off and onto the tracks is a matter to be investigated by the Federal Railroad Administration.
Bills come due
Lowery said it is typical for the DNR not to charge a business for the cleanup costs of such a spill, as long as it conducts the cleanup as required by the DNR, which the railway is doing.
“As long as they’re doing their job, we don’t plan to bill them,” he said.
Local officials see the situation differently.
Waterford Town Chairman Tom Hincz said he plans to speak with Village Fire Chief Mueller about billing the railroad company for the cost of local personnel, equipment and materials to handle the spill.
Patrick Waldron, a Canadian National spokesman, said if local authorities want to discuss a billing, the railroad will discuss that directly with them.
He declined to state who at the railway should be sent the bill, explaining he doesn’t want the issue to have media as a go-between.
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