Eastern Washington coal train derailment under safety probe by Federal Railroad Administration

Published: Friday, July 06, 2012, 3:48 PM     Updated: Friday, July 06, 2012, 6:04 PM

By Nick Budnick, The Oregonian

The Federal Railroad Administration has launched an investigation of the July 2 derailing of a 125-car coal train in eastern Washington.

The derailment took place Monday night in Mesa, 25 miles north of Pasco. It caused a cloud of coal dust as 10 cars fell on their side and forced another 20 cars to be pushed to the side by heavy equipment to clear the tracks.

Gus Melonas, a spokesman for Burlington Northern Santa Fe, said no more than 900 tons of coal were spilled in all. No one was injured. The train was en route from the Powder River Basin in Wyoming to an export terminal in British Columbia. The route and others in the Pacific Northwest could see more coal train traffic because of controversial plans to develop new coal export terminals.

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