Canadian Pacific Reports 15-Car Train Derailment Along Mississippi

Fifteen Canadian Pacific rail cars derailed along the Mississippi River near Brownsville, Minnesota late Tuesday.

Canadian Pacific officials said the derailment happened around 10 p.m. and crews are working to minimize the environmental impacts. Six train cars carrying soybean oil derailed into the Mississippi River.

David Morrison, the federal on-scene coordinator with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, said Wednesday afternoon that that one of the six cars has a leak. He said agency officials don’t know how much soybean oil has leaked into the river at this time but they are working to remove it from the water.

“Vegetable oil behaves a lot like petroleum oil,” Morrison said. “It may not be as toxic, but it can be very harmful to wildlife. It can mess with their ability to thermally regulate themselves, you can have a die off, the product needs to be recovered.”

Another car carrying sodium chlorate, a salt-like powder classified as a dangerous good, leaked onto tracks and was being contained Wednesday morning.

Canadian Pacific spokesman Andy Cummings said that while there are no environmental concerns at this time, crews are taking preventive actions.

“We have set up downstream a containment boom system in case that any product were to have escaped from those soybean oil cars,” he said. “We take our commitment to the environment very seriously.”

Cummings said Canadian Pacific doesn’t have an estimate of when the tracks will be reopened.

Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this story reported that none of the train cars in the river had leaked. It has been updated to reflect new information from federal officials.