Train hauling Canadian oil derails in Minnesota
27 Mar 2013 20:37 ET
March 27 (Reuters) - A Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd train hauling crude oil has derailed in western Minnesota, spilling up to 30,000 gallons of oil, Minnesota officials said on Wednesday.
The Otter Tail Sheriff's Department said 14 cars of the 94-car train derailed near Parkers Prairie on Wednesday morning, while officials at the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency said between 20,000 and 30,000 gallons of crude oil had leaked into a nearby ditch and field.
"It is still leaking right now," Dan Olson, a spokesman for the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency said.
Olson said three cars were leaking crude, with one having spilled most of its 26,000-gallon load. Two others have tipped over and are leaking. He said he didn't expect the spill to threaten local waterways as the ground at Parkers Prairie, north west of Minneapolis, is frozen.
Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd said only one car was spilling crude. Railroad spokesman Ed Greenberg said a clean-up operation is underway and the company is investigating the incident.
Moving oil by rail in Canada and the United States has increased rapidly in the last two years as domestic crude production has grown faster than pipeline capacity.
Environmental concerns have delayed the production of pipelines like TransCanada Corp's Keystone XL, but some experts have argued moving crude by rail poses a larger risk of accidents and spills.
The Otter Tail Sheriff's Department said the train was approximately 5,700 feet in length, or 1.7 kilometers long. At 26,000 gallons per car, the train could have been hauling up to 2.4 million gallons of crude, according to Reuters calculations.
The news was first reported by the Associated Press.
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