As information about Friday’s oil train derailment in Mosier, Oregon, trickled in, officials did not immediately offer any information on the condition of the city’s water system.
But according to a press release Sunday, investigators discovered Mosier’s “waste water treatment plant and [the city’s] sewer lines are now non-operational as a result of damage from the train derailment.”
During a press conference the day before, Wasco County Sheriff Lane Magill explained that firefighters used city water combat a blaze that erupted from overturned oil tanker car. As a result, residents are now drawing water from an old well that has not recently been tested.
“They just put a boil order on for the citizens, just to make sure they were safe,” Magill said.
In fact, a boil water notice hung on the door of the local school, where a makeshift incident response center is set up.
Oregon’s Department of Environmental Quality expects results from the water in the back-up well sometime Monday. Officials have not reported any drinking water contamination as a result of the oil spill.
Crews worked through the weekend to offload oil from tanker cars and remove damaged train cars by flatbed trucks.