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    Home News Norfolk Southern to dish out ,7.35 million in derailment case
    Norfolk Southern to dish out ,7.35 million in derailment case
    News
    FRAN De LANCEYEra Correspondent  
    November 15, 2007

    Norfolk Southern to dish out ,7.35 million in derailment case

    EMPORIUM – In what could be one of the largest natural resources
    damage settlements in state history, Norfolk Southern will pay
    ,7.35 million to resolve its civil liability for a June 2006 train
    derailment in McKean County that polluted and killed fish and other
    aquatic life in Big Fill Run, Sinnemahoning-Portage Creek and the
    Driftwood Branch of Sinnemahoning Creek.

    McKean County District Attorney John Pavlock announced the
    settlement Thursday during a press conference at the Emporium
    Little League Field on the bank of the Portage Branch of the
    Sinnemahoning Creek, site of some of the worst contamination after
    the chemical spill.

    As part of the agreement, Norfolk Southern will pay ,3.675
    million each to the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission and the
    state Department of Environmental Protection.

    The settlement focuses on the contamination of the environment
    that occurred on June 30, 2006, when approximately 31 cars of a
    train operated by Norfolk Southern derailed near Gardeau, in
    Norwich Township. During that accident, liquid sodium hydroxide
    spilled from three railcars into wetlands and entered Big Fill Run,
    a tributary of the Sinnemahoning-Portage Creek that flows through
    McKean County and into Cameron County.

    From Big Fill Run, the spilled sodium hydroxide contaminated
    soils, sediments, surface water, groundwater, and wetlands, and
    killed or damaged fish and other aquatic life and terrestrial plant
    and animal life.

    Under a separate plea agreement with the McKean County district
    attorney’s office, Norfolk Southern pleaded no contest to one
    violation of Section 2504 of the Fish and Boat Code relating to the
    pollution of waters. The agreement expressly recognizes that the
    company will pay ,7.35 million to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
    to mitigate the impacts of the spill in the area of the derailment
    and that the civil settlement agreement expressly addresses and
    fully compensates for the environmental harm and damage that
    occurred.

    A portion of the settlement, ,93,000, will be used to repay the
    Fish and Boat Commission for its costs incurred investigating and
    responding to the accident. The commission already has dedicated,
    at a minimum of ,125,000 to the McKean County Boondocs Program, a
    unique conservation and education project that uses the
    construction of trout stream improvement devices as a means of
    providing treatment to delinquent and dependent children.

    The commission will deposit the remaining share of the
    settlement into an interest-bearing, restricted revenue account
    that can be used only for the development and implementation of
    projects that benefit recreational fishing and boating and the
    aquatic resources of Cameron, McKean, Elk and Potter counties.
    Initially, the commission will focus on projects in the
    Sinnemahoning Creek Watershed upstream of the confluence with the
    First Fork of Sinnemahoning Creek.

    “Of the total amoung of the settlement, a substantial portion
    will be used to fund projects to improve the water resources of
    Cameron, Elk, McKean and Potter counties, with the focus being on
    the waterways immediately affected by the spill,” Pavlock said.
    “This means the PFBC will distribute more than ,3 million locally.
    The residents of these four counties know the streams in this area
    better than anyone. They have fished in them, swum in them and
    grown up beside them.

    “Since they and the others who utilize and appreciate these
    streams fully understand their benefit, it only makes sense that
    they fully participate in the determination of how to put these
    funds to their best use.”

    Referring to the derailment, Pavlock said, “If you were standing
    down by this stream one year, four months and 15 days ago, you
    would have smelled the stench of a strong cleaner in the air. The
    stream was a dark dye brown and fish were attempting to jump out of
    the water to avoid the sodium hydroxide that had flowed down from
    the derailment site a couple of miles upstream and just inside the
    McKean County line.”

    Pavlock said that Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Water Conservation
    Officers Bill Crisp and “Pete” Mader were on the scene observing
    the effects of the spill.

    “They couldn’t prevent what occurred so they went to work
    collecting evidence,” Pavlock said. “They continued to gather
    evidence for many months to follow, including obtaining samples,
    statements and taking pictures.”

    Pavlock recognized local outdoors writer, Jim Zoschg of
    Emporium, for his timely and critical videos of the stream damage
    and large numbers of fish that died as a result of the spill. “When
    NS attorneys questioned the number of fish we claimed were killed,
    I showed them Jim’s video as proof,” Pavlock said.

    The two WCO’s also contacted Pavlock’s office and within a week
    Pavlock and County Detective Jerry Okerlund visited the derailment
    scene and the stream to get first-hand information about how they
    could assist the PFBC. Pavlock added, “We also met at the site and
    in Cameron County with Edwin “Tommy” Tompkins and representatives
    from Fish and Boat to come up with a joint plan and prepare our
    civil and criminal cases to address this devastating event.”

    Many meetings followed and civil counsel for the PFBC, Laurie
    Shepler, kept in constant contact with the latest developments of
    the case. After charges were filed, many sessions were held with NS
    attorneys.

    Also attending the news conference were Dr. Douglas J. Austen,
    executive director of the PFBC, Tompkins and Cameron County
    Commissioner Glen Fiebig.

    Tags:

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