Sometime between 4:00 and 4:15am, on Thursday morning, April 11, 1996, a 72-car train derailment on a Montana Rail Link line occurred 1 mile west of Alberton, Montana. Four tanker cars containing chlorine derailed, at least one pressurized chlorine tanker ruptured creating a 24-inch gap, venting a dangerous plume of chlorine gas across the Clark Fork river over Interstate 90 and into local residences. Interstate 90 remains closed. (Missoulian, 4-19-96, 4-21-96)

Two additional tankers containing potassium cresylate and sodium chlorate also reportedly leaked. Officials have not yet reported how much of these chemicals were released. (Missoulian, 4-19-96)
 

At least one person has died, over 352 people have been hospitalized. Some patients remain in critical and serious condition. Approximately 1000 people were forced to flee their homes and have been evacuated from an 8 to 12 square mile zone. (Missoulian, 4-15-96, 4-16-96, 4-19-96)  People exposed to the toxic chemical fumes reported a number of health effects: burning eyes and nose, lung irritation and inflammation, sore throats, difficulty breathing, wheezing, coughing up yellow or green sputum, nose bleeds, coughing up blood, headaches and dizziness, and other symptoms or reactions including, depression, lack of motor skills, hopelessness, and anxiety. Exposed animals and livestock also developed reactions: including eye lesions, difficulty breathing, wheezing, indicative of lung irritation. (Missoulian 4-12-96, 4-16-96, 4-17-96, 4-25-96)

Each derailed tanker car had the capacity to carry 90 tons or 180,000 pounds of chlorine. Approximately 122,000 pounds of chlorine leaked from Tanker 3. (Missoulian 4-19-96) An unofficial report from a confidential source said the "spill site itself" was roughly 300 feet X 50 feet and the vegetation within that area was "wiped out." (Cold Mountain, Cold Rivers 4-16-96)

 Chlorine monitoring around the leaking cars range from 12 to 20 parts per million to as high as 48 to 52 parts per million. When the No. 4 chlorine tanker was taken off the No. 3 chlorine tanker, the movement caused a release of chlorine from the soil that spiked to 1,400 parts per million -- lethal levels, according to an EPA toxicologist. (Missoulian, 4-16-96, 4-20-96)

 Chemical sampling from the soil under the tank cars confirmed the presence of chlorinated organics. Garron Smith, Ph.D. University of Montana Environmental Chemist, said chlorophenols were identified by his lab equipment, and were created by the reaction of chlorine and potassium cresylate -- which converts to phenol in the process. Under questioning, he stated that dioxins are readily formed from phenols and chlorine, and that these reactants were present in the samplings. He did not volunteer any hypothesis when asked about the likelihood of heat being present to aid dioxin formation. Such acid-base reactions yield heat, and a condensation plume was seen in the hours after the accident. (Missoulian, 4-20-96, Montana Rail Link briefing)
 

Contamination Scenarios: depending on heat and amount of available cresol (Cl & O were plentiful) dioxins could bioaccumulate through the food chain, and re-suspend from soil with subsequent re-deposition. Chlorophenols might contaminate the aquifer, or disperse through the adjacent Clark Fork River and its organisms (chlorophenols are moderately water soluble). Atmospheric concentration of any dioxins and the chlorophenols may well have been highest in the hour or so before residents and motorists were evacuated. (Montana CHEER 4-19-96)

Days after the spill, residents -- some allowed in for brief periods -- complained of smelling chlorine and a strong "pesticide" smell, reports of nausea, burning eyes and severe headaches. Thought to be releases from the cresol tanker. Reports of a white substance settled onto surfaces. (Missoulian, 4-19-96, 4-20-96)

Paul Orum, Working Group on Community Right to Know in Washington D.C. says that under the Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act, train derailments and accidents involving chlorine must be reported. Montana Rail Link is legally required to report in writing to emergency planners the chemical name, estimated or known quantity released, time and duration, release to known media, the known and anticipated health effects, acute and chronic, from the chemical catastrophe. (Cold Mountain, Cold Rivers 4-17-96)

The chlorine that derailed near Alberton, Montana was produced at Georgia Pacific West in Bellingham, Washington. The chlorine tanker cars were intended for bleaching pulp at Georgia Pacific pulp mills in Crossett, Arkansas and Port Hudson, Louisiana. (Cold Mountain, Cold Rivers 4-16-96)

Two other Montana train derailments occur within a week, one involving a damaged chlorine tanker (though no reported release): on April 11, near Noxon, MT; April 16, near Dodson, Montana (Cl tanker); on a Burlington Northern Freight Train. (Missoulian, 4-12-96 and Montana National Public Radio 4-16-96)
 

Following in the wake of one of the nation's worst chlorine catastrophes, environmental groups call for an immediate phase-out of industrial chlorine use in the following sectors for which substitutes have been proven effective and affordable: pulp and paper bleaching, refrigerants, most solvents, dry cleaning, PVC/PVDC plastics and pesticides, which account for 75 percent of all chlorine used in Canada and the U.S. The groups are Montana Environmental Information Center, Montana CHEER, Montana Student Environmental Action Coalition, Montana Ecosystems Defense Council, Montana Chemical Injury Information Network, Montana Public Interest Research Group, Montanans Against Toxic Burning, Native Forest Network, Missoula Valley Improvement Association, Jeannette Rankin Peace Resource Center, Wounded Earth Environmental Project, Friends of the Bitterroot, Friends of the Wild Swan, Voices Of The Environment, Greenpeace International, VOTE Action Committee, The Ecology Center, the Environmental Research Foundation, Citizens Clearinghouse for Hazardous Wastes and Cold Mountain, Cold Rivers. (Kaimin, 4-22-96) 

Local residents form their own advocacy organization this week called Alberton Community Evacuees to press for disclosure from Montana Rail Link of the health effects surrounding the catastrophe. (Missoulian, 4-26-96)

Cold Mountain, Cold Rivers files notice of intent to sue Montana Rail Link under the Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act to disclose extent of ecological contamination, acute and chronic health effects. ( Kaimin, 4-26-96)

Prepared by
Cold Mountain, Cold Rivers and Montana CHEER
Box 7941 Missoula MT 59807
406-728-0867
cmcr@wildrockies.org
   

Please sign the Alberton Community Coalition for Environmental Health's (ACCEH) Petition