Incident Background
The Dunsmuir Railyard has operated since the early 1900s.
Prior to 1955, the facility (then operated by the Southern Pacific
Transportation Company) was equipped with a steel tank with a capacity of 2.3
million gallons. The tank held Bunker C fuel to power steam locomotives. It was
replaced by a 200,000-gallon diesel tank in 1955. Union Pacific Railroad (UPRR)
acquired the property in 1996. UPRR transitioned away from fuel storage and
fueling operations at the site and by 2003, most of these activities had
ceased.
Unknown amounts of Bunker C and diesel fuels have seeped
into the soil, groundwater, and Upper Sacramento River. Several attempts have
been made over the last century to stop contamination from migrating into the
river. Current response activities stem from a citizen report of oil along the
riverbank near the facility in 2018. Since then, environmental response actions
have included:
- Additional site investigation to support design and
implementation of site cleanup activities
- Excavation of impacted material along the surface of the
riverbank and partial riverbank restoration
- Installation of oil barriers in the river and along sections
of the concrete walkway adjacent to the river
- Installation of containment boom in the river
The Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board
(RWQCB) issued a Cleanup and Abatement Order to address site-wide contamination
and discharge. Additionally, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
issued a Clean Water Act (CWA) Order to UPRR requiring response actions to
remove the discharge or to mitigate or prevent the substantial threat of a
discharge of oil.
Current Status
A Unified Command (UC) consisting of the EPA, RWQCB,
California Department of Fish and Wildlife-Office of Spill Prevention and
Response (CDFW-OSPR), and UPRR has been formed and will be coordinating on the
site cleanup and restoration project.
The project is beginning in mid-July 2022 and due to
seasonal work limitations, extend into 2023. EPA is the lead oversight agency
for the following planned response actions:
- Removal of retaining walls and the adjacent walkway
- Excavation of oil-impacted soil along 1,000 feet of
shoreline
- Riverbank restoration along the shoreline to increase river
capacity and create additional habitat for birds and fish
- Wildlife and Fisheries Impacts
CDFW-OSPR has monitored the waterway since 2018 and has not
observed impacts to wildlife. Additionally, the California Office of
Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) assessed the river and
recommended (as recently as May 2022) that the fishery remain open, after
concluding that the situation did not reach the threshold of being a threat to
public health.
Anyone observing oiled wildlife should not attempt to
capture it. Instead, please report observations of oiled wildlife to the Oiled
Wildlife Care Network (OWCN) hotline at 1-877-UCD- OWCN (1-800-823-6926).
Media
Media inquiries can be directed to CDFW-OSPR Public
Information Officer, Eric Laughlin, at (916) 214-3279. More information will be
shared when it becomes available.
Cal Spill Watch
More information on this project can be found at CDFW OSPR’s
Cal Spill Watch site, https://calspillwatch.wildlife.ca.gov/.
