A transition plan lays out continued and future recovery from a Montana Rail Link derailment in June that spilled thousands of pounds of oil-based asphalt material into the Yellowstone River.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on-scene coordinator Joni Sandoval says workers transporting material by boat faced diminishing returns on the recovery of asphalt material, dropping water levels and high temperatures.
“Unfortunately, you do have to make some hard decisions on, is it worth the health and safety of the responders to recover maybe minimal amounts of oil?” said Sandoval.
She said workers with Montana Rail Link, a member of Unified Command, are responding to alerts of washed-up asphalt material on a case-by-case basis.
Unified Command estimates responders were able to remove 55 percent of the oil-based asphalt material. That leaves roughly 187,000 out of 419,000 pounds remaining in the Yellowstone River.
According to the Emergency Operations Transition Plan, another assessment and cleanup is slated for mid-summer of next year.
