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Water Treatment Center Damaged In Gorge Oil Train Fire

As information about Friday’s oil train derailment in Mosier, Oregon, trickled in, officials did not immediately offer any information on the condition of the city’s water system.

But according to a press release Sunday, investigators discovered Mosier’s “waste water treatment plant and [the city’s] sewer lines are now non-operational as a result of damage from the train derailment.”

During a press conference the day before, Wasco County Sheriff Lane Magill explained that firefighters used city water combat a blaze that erupted from overturned oil tanker car. As a result, residents are now drawing water from an old well that has not recently been tested.

“They just put a boil order on for the citizens, just to make sure they were safe,” Magill said.

In fact, a boil water notice hung on the door of the local school, where a makeshift incident response center is set up.

Oregon’s Department of Environmental Quality expects results from the water in the back-up well sometime Monday. Officials have not reported any drinking water contamination as a result of the oil spill.

Crews worked through the weekend to offload oil from tanker cars and remove damaged train cars by flatbed trucks.

Crews used heavy equipment to move damaged train cars and offload oil from overturned tanker cars onto trucks as part of the response and cleanup effort at the site of a train derailment in Mosier, Oregon.
Emily Schwing / Northwest News Network
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Northwest News Network
Crews used heavy equipment to move damaged train cars and offload oil from overturned tanker cars onto trucks as part of the response and cleanup effort at the site of a train derailment in Mosier, Oregon.
Trucks loaded with replacement railroad tracks were parked outside Mosier, Oregon, over the weekend. Tracks meant to replace those damaged in Friday's train derailment were also brought in by rail.
Emily Schwing / Northwest News Network
/
Northwest News Network
Trucks loaded with replacement railroad tracks were parked outside Mosier, Oregon, over the weekend. Tracks meant to replace those damaged in Friday's train derailment were also brought in by rail.

Copyright 2016 Northwest News Network

Emily Schwing
Emily Schwing comes to the Inland Northwest by way of Alaska, where she covered social and environmental issues with an Arctic spin as well as natural resource development, wildlife management and Alaska Native issues for nearly a decade. Her work has been heard on National Public Radio’s programs like “Morning Edition” and “All things Considered.” She has also filed for Public Radio International’s “The World,” American Public Media’s “Marketplace,” and various programs produced by the BBC and the CBC. She has also filed stories for Scientific American, Al Jazeera America and Arctic Deeply.
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