Toxic Acid Dribbled Across Iowa
The Des Moines Register

Rail inspectors missed 250-mile toxic leak

A train that dribbled toxic acid across more than half of Iowa [last week] went unnoticed by a safety net of government agencies and railroad inspectors whose job is to prevent such incidents.

It wasn't until hours after the faulty Union Pacific Railroad tank car left Cedar Rapids that it was spotted Saturday night in a Council Bluffs rail yard with a black substance pooled beneath it. Half the tank's phosphoric acid had drained.

Federal and state officials say the 3,973-gallon leak over 250 miles was a rare occurrence and posed only a minor threat. Phosphoric acid can cause skin burns or internal irritation if swallowed.
 
Still, environmentalists say, the incident is troubling because the state is a major rail and highway route for dangerous materials such as gasoline, industrial solvents and nuclear waste. 

"This is a wake-up call," warned Jane Magers of Earth Care Inc., a Des Moines advocacy group that opposes the shipment of nuclear material.

"We are way over our heads in allowing this stuff to be transported. There is no way to assure safety."

Davis, the Union Pacific spokesman, said an employee spotted the leaking acid at 9:30 p.m. Saturday, [November 6]. State and federal agencies were notified. Council Bluffs firefighters built a dike around the leaky tank car to contain the liquid.

 "By 1:30 a.m. Sunday, we had the railroad police dispatchers contact all the county sheriff offices between Cedar Rapids and Council Bluffs," he said.

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