ROCKWOOD, Maine — Cleanup efforts are still underway in Somerset County nearly six months after a Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC) freight train derailed in Sandwich Academy Grant Township.
Hydraulic fluid, diesel, and engine oil seeped into soil and nearby waterways, making for a difficult cleanup, according to the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry.
The department's latest update said CPKC submitted a soil remediation report, which is being reviewed by the Maine Department of Environmental Protection.
The Land Use Planning Commission (LUPC) and Maine Forest Service (MFS) served the railroad with a "Notice of Violation," as a large amount of sediment spilled into Moose River, which flows into Little Brassua Lake. The two organizations will monitor the restoration work until its finished.
The LUPC will be reviewing a "natural resource restoration plan" for the affected areas. It is unclear how long cleaning the derailment site will take.
Just weeks after the derailment, chief of the Jackman-Moose River Fire and Rescue Department Bill Jarvis said the spring's rainfall was making getting to the derailment, let alone cleanup, more complicated.
"Everything was so saturated and wet and soft anyways, and they needed for the water levels to go down and the rain just brought all the water levels back up," he said.
Crews had to use heavy machinery on roads leading to the derailment site, which caused pollutants from those roads to leach into waterways.
"It is the wrong time of the year to have to put that kind of heavy equipment on those roads. The roads just cannot take it," Jarvis told NEWS CENTER Maine in May.