Officials have released their first estimate of how much asphalt spilled into the Yellowstone River followingthe June 24 train derailment near Reed Point— 500,000 pounds, and they say they're making progress removing it.
Officials with the unified command responding to the incident said crews have removed about 35,000 pounds of asphalt from the river as of Thursday night.
Six rail cars containing asphalt went into the river, which contained about 1 million pounds of asphalt, according to a unified command news release. Two cars were relatively full when they were removed from the water, two were half full, and the other two were empty.
Crews will have a better estimate once the recovered cars are cut open, according to unified command.
Reconstruction of the Twin Bridges railroad bridge, which collapsed into the river during the incident, is continuing, and unified command says it believes the bridge will be back online for rail traffic in weeks, not months. Montana Rail Link trains have been rerouted through Laurel and other places since the derailment.
Unified command is made up of officials with the Environmental Protection Agency, the Montana Department of Environmental Quality, Stillwater County Emergency Management and Montana Rail Link.
Cleanup teams are currently focused on the first four to ten river miles downstream from the site. Unified Command is planning boat launch improvement work at Itch-Kep-Pe Park in Columbus and Buffalo Mirage Fishing Access Site (Sportsman’s Park) in Laurel to support increased boat traffic for assessment and cleanup.
The Oiled Wildlife Care Network, which has been monitoring harm to wildlife in the river, has demobilized from the site but will remain the contact for reporting impacted wildlife. The Montana Raptor Conservation Center, based in Bozeman, will respond to reports of impacted wildlife. Environmental crews continue to look for impacted wildlife.
For updated river closure information, visit: https://fwp.mt.gov/news/current-closures-restrictions/waterbody-closures [fwp.mt.gov]
Related: Crews collect asphalt, prepare for bridge repair at Reed Point derailment site
