WHITEWATER, Colo. — A Union Pacific train crew escaped without injuries this week after their train hit a rockslide and derailed, with both locomotives winding up on their sides in the Gunnison River.
“Around 11 p.m. MT Tuesday evening, a Union Pacific train encountered a rockslide south of Whitewater, Colorado. The Union Pacific crew onboard was not injured,” railroad spokeswoman Kristen South said in an email. “Two locomotives and five loaded rail cars hauling coal derailed in the incident and some fuel has leaked. Emergency services from Grand Junction and Mesa County, along with Union Pacific crews, are responding to the incident, which is under investigation.”
The derailment occurred south of Grand Junction, Colo., on UP’s North Fork Subdivision.
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I’m sure the tree huggers in Colorado will now come out in force to stop UP from running trains in Colorado because of the “downstream impacts” of coal production and the diesel in the engines that leaked into the Gunnison River. How dare they pollute Colorado with their dirty coal trains, blah, blah, blah.
Of course I am being sarcastic but this is the exact same argument that Eagle County and other Colorado environmental nere’ do wells used as justification to sue the Seven County Coalition in North Eastern Utah to keep the Uinta Railway from being built to transport “Black Wax” crude oil by rail to refineries in the Gulf Coast set up to refine this heavy material by train. Never mind that coal has been hauled and said trains subject to derailments for over 100 years. They just wanted to stick in their oar where it wasn’t wanted (by the majority of the residents of the Uintah Basin and Utah in general) or needed in an effort to promote their pro environmental view at all costs, even if it wasn’t in their state. If it were up to them, we would all junk our cars and go back to covered wagons, except of course for the environmentalists and their SUV yuppie Land Rovers, BMW’s and Mercedes Benz’s… Well, fortunately, the UP and the promoters of building the 82 mile Uintah Railway can rest easy because the SCOTUS threw out their case although they did impose some safeguards to make sure the railroad did adhere to their environmental Impact statement and other promises. The Uinta Railway has thus began preparations to issue Industrial Revenue Style Bonds so the Railway can start construction only 5 years after it was scheduled to begin and the citizens of Northeastern Utah will finally be able to enjoy the benefits that their wonderful Colorado neighbors tried to deny them in the first place in being connected by rail to the rest of the country. And UP can continue hauling coal, oil and any other cargo deemed acceptable by the EPA, and FRA under the auspices of the USDOT through the States of Utah and Colorado (and all others for that matter) as ruled by the STB five years ago.
Geez, isn’t justice just a wonderful thing…
Thank goodness the crew wasn’t injured. They will likely have stress experiences as a result. At least they weren’t moving very fast with only 2 locomotives and 5 cars in the wreck. Could have been much worse.