PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • June 13, 2024
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has fined CPKC (formerly Canadian Pacific), a freight railroad, around $16,500 for two train derailments in the last two years that caused nearly 15,000 gallons of oil to spill into waterways. In October 2022, a CPKC train carrying 33 cars of hazardous materials derailed near Milo, Maine. Five of those hazardous-materials cars derailed from the tracks. And six months later, on April 15, 2023, another of CPKC’s trains flew off the tracks near Rockwood. Three of its locomotives and six of its freight cars derailed, including two cars carrying hazardous materials. All but the two hazardous-materials cars caught fire, igniting a forest fire. Neither of the derailments resulted in leaks from the cars carrying hazardous materials. But a significant amount of fuel leaked from both trains.