Environment gets its turn
4/27/2008 12:37 AM   0 comment(s) on this story E-mail this story to a friend



The saga of Norfolk Southern and the 2005 Graniteville train disaster continues as the federal government has gotten into the picture.

A federal lawsuit against Norfolk Southern, the railroad company involved in the tragedy, was filed for environmental damage done in the Graniteville area. A train veered off onto a siding when a switch was left open. The train collided with a parked locomotive, derailing several cars and rupturing a tank carrying liquid chlorine.

The resultine cloud of chlorine gas killed nine people in the Aiken County town and forced evacuation of Graniteville's 5,400 residents.

The lawsuit is another example of just how devastating the wreck was and that it hit at every aspect of the Graniteville community. Lives were lost, families were disrupted, the community lost its chief employer and water, soil, plants and animals were affected by the release of the toxic chemical.

The rail company should be held accountable for all the damage that was done as a result of the devastating wreck. It has already settled with Avondale Mills owners and with a class action filing for Graniteville residents.

One is left to wonder why it has taken the federal government nearly three and a half years to pursue a case against Norfolk Southern for pollution violations regarding the accident. Is this a case of federal overkill or should the railroad company have done more to reduce the impact of chlorine and diesel fuel to the nearby environment?

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