Some locomotives and rail cars burn after a freight train derailed on April 15, 2023, in Sandwich Academy Grant Township, near Rockwood, Maine. Three workers were treated and released from hospital, and Canadian Pacific Railway will lead the cleanup and repair of the tracks, officials said. Maine Forest Service via AP Maine AP — The Maine Department of Environmental Protection is taking Canadian Pacific Kansas City to task over the cleanup following a freight train derailment and fire.
Commission Chairman Melanie Loyzim wrote the railroad on Thursday that its good faith efforts have failed to meet the agency's expectations with regard to response and timing to effectively mitigate impacts to the environment and the public health. Two concerns are a failure to move a pair of rail cars containing hazardous material further away from the site in a timely manner, and the failure to remove diesel fuel from the locomotives' saddle tanks, resulting in a diesel fuel spill. An estimated 1,895 liters of fuel spilled, causing an estimated 500 gallons of fuel to spill.
Three locomotive engines and six train cars carrying lumber and electrical wiring went off the tracks in Somerset County Saturday, causing three people to be hospitalized.
Canadian Pacific Kansas City, created by a merger between Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern that was completed the day before the derailment, is leading cleanup, salvage and repair.
Derailments and rail safety have been a growing concern nationwide since the February 3 derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, resulting in chemical release that forced evacuations and created lingering health concerns.
The Maine derailment occurred near Rockwood, a town of about 300 people on Moosehead Lake, about 90 miles northwest of Bangor.