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Clean-Up For Canadian Pacific Train Derailment Continues

Contractors for Canadian Pacific Railway are working to clear more than a dozen derailed train cars in southern Wisconsin after hundreds of gallons of crude oil spilled from one tanker.

Watertown fire chief Gregory Michalek said Monday that residents who evacuated dozens of homes following the spill a day earlier cannot yet return home as cleanup continues.

Thirteen of 110 cars derailed in Watertown Sunday afternoon. It’s the second derailment in Wisconsin in two days.

Canadian Pacific says one car was punctured and it leaked less than 1,000 gallons of oil. CP says the leaking car was sealed, the spilled oil contained and no oil reached a waterway.

Federal investigators say there is nothing to suggest the Watertown derailment was anything but an accident.

Fire officials plan to re-evaluate the situation in Watertown Monday evening and decide if residents can return home. The Jefferson County Emergency Management director said earlier that 35 homes near the site were evacuated.

A BNSF freight train also derailed Saturday, spilling more than 18,000 gallons of ethanol near Alma in western Wisconsin, near the Mississippi River. BNSF said railroad crews stopped the leaks from five tanker cars and placed containment booms along the shoreline.

Last March, a BNSF train also derailed in Galena.

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