Mantua Creek affected:
http://www.nj.com/gloucester-county...ailment_prompts_evacu.html#incart_maj-story-2
http://www.nj.com/gloucester-county...ailment_prompts_evacu.html#incart_maj-story-2
The situation worsened Friday evening as readings showed higher levels of vinyl chloride in the air and authorities decided to evacuate residents who live near the accident site. The evacuation affected several hundred people -- far more than the brief one immediately after the derailment.
National Transportation Safety Board members arrived Friday to start the work of piecing together how the accident happened on the swing-style rail bridge where there was another derailment three years ago. With increased health concerns close to the site, NTSB chairman Deborah Hersman said her investigators would initially focus on reviewing records, interviewing witnesses and other parts of the investigation that can be done away from the accident scene.
Meanwhile, local authorities said the job of lifting tanker cars was so immense that no cranes in the Philadelphia area were strong enough to handle it. One was being floated in by barge from New York Harbor -- a full day's journey away -- for the job.
New air quality tests at the site of the Paulsboro train derailment are again at safe levels and the shelter-in-place order has been lifted.
Kathleen Moore of the US Coast Guard earlier on Monday morning said residents should “shelter in place” by keeping their doors & windows closed after an air quality test showed the air at unsafe levels.
A shelter has been set up in Paulsboro for residents. Residents in a 12-block area who were evacuated on Friday night are still being told they will not be allowed until Saturday.
Moore says that it has not yet been determined whether the chemicals are coming from the breached tanker or the tankers still in the water. “We are not certain what is causing heightened levels,” said Moore.
No clean up or investigation activity the derailment site as a result of this condition.
Officials had warned that levels could spike as they begin to move tanker cars which still contain toxic chemicals.
Residents who had been evacuated on Friday night when the level of chemicals spiked were told Sunday night that they should expect to be out of their homes until at least Saturday.
Some residents complained that they learned from the media that they would be away from their homes for an extended period of time. ” They put us here. And they couldn’t send somebody here to tell us before the news guys came around?” Scott McFarland asked on WPVI TV.
This will likely delay efforts to remove the chemicals and cars from the area and for NTSB investigators to inspect the train and bridge.
Take the time to read the msds for vinyl chloride. You don't wanna be near it. All those folks pictured walking around with no scba apparatus should get some liver function tests stat.
Vinyl chloride is a nasty chemical, just like xylene, that we use or in contact with every day. VC is part of that familiar new car scent.