Train derailment spill threatens Mississippi

WASHINGTON – An oil train derailment and spill in northwest Illinois poses an “imminent and substantial danger” of contaminating the Mississippi River, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Saturday.

The spill from the derailment, which occurred Thursday, also threatens the Galena River, a Mississippi tributary, and the Upper Mississippi National Wildlife and Fish Refuge, one of the more complex ecosystems in North America.

The EPA said it couldn’t estimate how much oil was spilled, but that the 21 cars of the 105-car BNSF Railway train that derailed contained 630,000 gallons of Bakken crude from North Dakota. Small fires from the wreckage continued to burn Saturday.

Earlier Saturday, another oil train derailed and caught fire near Gogama, Ontario, bringing to five the total number of such derailments in the U.S. and Canada in as many weeks.

Saturday’s derailment of a Canadian National Railway train was about 23 miles from where another oil train derailed on the same rail line three weeks ago. The railroad said Saturday on Twitter that five cars were in a local waterway, some of them on fire. About 264,000 gallons of oil were released in the Feb. 14 derailment.