KENT — The Advocate received a tip last Friday morning from a traveler who witnessed what appeared to be a train derailment near Kent, Texas, about 40 miles east from Van Horn. Therese Bauer was on Interstate 10 traveling to Guadalupe Mountains National Park when she began filming the aftermath of a fresh derailment. The scene was strewn with dozens of overturned train cars, including some tankers with their contents leaking.
Cody Davis, with the Culberson County Office of Emergency Management (OEM), responded to a call before 5 a.m. regarding a possible hazmat situation. Union Pacific Railroad (UPRR), Maintenance Away workers and subcontractors were dispatched to the location immediately to assess the damage and determine if hazardous cargo was listed on the manifest.
The Advocate received this initial statement from UPRR media representative Robynn Tysver: “Approximately 33 Union Pacific train cars derailed in Culbertson (sic) County near the small community of Kent, Texas. No one was injured, and there were no HAZMAT releases. Local officials were notified, and cleanup is underway. The cause of the incident remains under investigation.”
Tysver reiterated two days later that there were no hazardous materials released and confirmed that the white material (as shown in pictures), was solid PVC resin which had been remediated from the site. On Tuesday, railroad officials added that cleanup at the site was continuing and added that they have repaired the track allowing rail traffic to resume, but they were still removing the damaged cars.
This marks the third incident in about 10 years for UPRR. On January 30, 2017, I-10 was closed after a Union Pacific train derailed, again near Kent. The Texas Department of Transportation initially identified one of the six cars marked as containing hazardous material as leaking but soon discovered that the frost-like substance on cargo marked butane was just dirt dust. Culberson County Sheriff’s Department was dispatched to the scene and an area around the crash was set as an evacuation zone, which included a section of Interstate 10 forcing a detour. The interstate was closed after the accident but reopened about three hours later. Two years prior to this incident, there was another close call around the same area, with another derailment resulting in the loss of 7 train cars, but fortunately, there were no injuries.
