HALL COUNTY ,Ga. — Norfolk Southern Railways settled this month with state regulators over a train accident.
Georgia’s Environmental Protection Division fined the company $10,000.
Three train cars derailed in Hall County in July.
One of them dumped soybeans into Flat Creek, which ended up sucking the oxygen out of the water and killed fish.
[DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]
Since the soybean spill, an aerator has been pumping oxygen back into the murky water.
“Nobody looks at a soybean and thinks it’s a pollutant,” Jason Ulseth with Chattahoochee Riverkeeper said.
Ulseth and his team have been monitoring oxygen levels of the creek and taking stock of its fish.
TRENDING STORIES:
- Ga. teacher fired, arrested after being caught with student in library closet, sheriff’s report says
- Cause of death revealed for woman who texted friends on the way to dinner party, then vanished
- A hit and run killed a woman; now the driver police were after is also dead
They have counted and photographed dozens of fish they said perished from the spill.
“This has been kind of the most unusual ones we’ve dealt with where normally it’s like a sewage spill or a chemical spill. This is the first I ever dealt with that was caused by a vegetable,” Ulseth told Channel 2 Action News.
In a statement, the company says “We’ll continue to work with our state partners to identify the source of the material and remove it from the creek.”
[SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]
IN OTHER NEWS:
This browser does not support the video element.