The Utah Department of Environmental Quality is testing to make sure water in the Price River near the Scofield Dam is safe after a train derailment last weekend dumped approximately 45 tons of coal upstream from two drinking water intake facilities.
Eight cars from the Union Pacific Railroad train derailed about 1 a.m. Sept. 22 in a section of the river in Carbon County, known colloquially as Fish Creek, DEQ southeast district engineer Scott Hacking said. About 180 tons of coal spilled, but only about a fourth of that fell into the river.
Officials aren’t sure what caused the derailment, Hacking said.