RAIL LINES REOPEN AFTER SPILL; BELL CITY RESIDENTS BACK HOME

BELL CITY -- The railroad tracks through Bell City were scheduled to open early today following a train derailment Sunday that caused a chemical spill and prompted an evacuation.

The 500 residents of Bell City who were evacuated were back home by Monday afternoon as work to repair the tracks was under way.

Mark Davis, spokesman for Union Pacific Railroad, said the cause of the derailment was still under investigation.

About 8,000 to 10,000 gallons of a hazardous material identified as sodium hydroxide spilled from a double-hold tanker car owned by DuPont. Sodium hydroxide, also called "spent caustic soda," is an ingredient in bathroom cleaners.

Although the spill, which occurred late Sunday afternoon, caused a strong odor, it wasn't the main reason authorities ordered the evacuation. The greatest concern was another derailed tanker car that was used to transport hydrocyanic acid, a chemical used in gas chambers.

As it turned out, the car was empty and wasn't severely damaged.

"This was a precautionary evacuation in order to ensure the air around the area was safe," said Davis.

A private contractor hired to monitor air quality declared it was safe early Monday morning, said Davis.

Davis estimated that over 100 people were involved in the cleanup. The contractor hired to collect the spent caustic soda began work at 3:30 a.m. Monday. Davis said most of the chemical spill had to be cleaned up before work could begin on the tracks.

"They started re-railing some of the cars at 5 a.m.," Davis said.

The railroad had to replace about 600 feet of track and 300 ties that were damaged in the wreck.

"We also had to replace some signal wire and dump about 10 cars of railroad rock to shore up the track again," he said.

The Union Pacific train, headed from Chicago to Little Rock, Ark., had 126 cars. The train was traveling on Cottonbelt Railroad tracks.

Seven of the derailed cars were full and 21 were empty, Davis said. The loaded cars hauled games and toys, the spent caustic soda, coal, rock, tin and steel.

Nine cars were deemed destroyed, Davis said. Those cars will be hauled away in the next few days on flat cars, he said.

He said that after the track reopens a skeletal crew will remain primarily for security until the last cars are removed.

"A community really comes together when there's a disaster," said Davis. "And, with all the emergency preparedness that has been going on down in that area, people know who to call and what to do."

He said the cause of the wreck might take months to determine.

"Since the cause wasn't immediately apparent, we will do a lot of tests," he said. "We will do tests on the car parts metallurgy tests.

"Also, that area has had a lot of rain. We may do computer profiles to look at the terrain and see if it was a contributing factor."

Davis said when a chemical spill occurs Union Pacific sends a crew of specialists to help local officials.

"We sent a team including an environmental person, a hazardous materials person, one of us from public relations, a derailment expert, a rail-car construction person, and a claims person."

He said local, state and federal officials were also at the scene.

"It's amazing how many people get together, but you need all those people," Davis said. "Every person is trained to have a job to do when we have an incident like this."