Maine authorities pinned the cause of a devastating train derailment that spilled 500 gallons of diesel fuel in 2023 on a nearby beaver dam.
Six train cars and three locomotives from Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC) derailed in April 2023 in the jurisdiction of Sandwich Academy Grant Township, according to Bangor Daily News. The derailment caused the train to go into the adjacent wetlands and the Moose River.
A “vast amount of water” flowed through a beaver dam, washing out part of the railroad tracks, Audie Arbo, the Maine Land Use Planning Commission’s permitting and compliance manager, said in a meeting Wednesday. A flow, which causes water to enter a beaver dam, let go, causing the water to flow through the culverts beneath the tracks.
While responders were cleaning up the section of rail, 500 gallons of diesel from the train poured into Little Brassua Lake after the…
