Railroad is fined for hazardous spills

A railroad was fined $75,000 for at least two spills of hazardous material at its Lakeville transfer facility, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency announced last week. Progressive Rail Inc., which handles about 1 million gallons of oil and hazardous material per month, failed to notify the agency promptly about a 2005 spill of 30,000 gallons of animal tallow and a 2008 release of ferric chloride near a storm sewer inlet. The company failed to take reasonable steps to avoid damaging the environment, according to the agency. The company agreed to investigate and clean up past spills, revise its "prevention and response plan" and construct a secondary containment system for transferring material between rail cars and tanker trucks, the agency said. Read the full MPCA report here.