Train Fire Is Out, But There's Some Oil in the Columbia River

There's also some worry about the spring migration of chinook.

By Aaron Mesh

Firefighters have extinguished the blaze from an oil train that derailed and caught fire in the Columbia River Gorge. The fire was put out around 2:05 am this morning, Oregon state officials say.

But some of the oil from the exploding rail cars has entered the Columbia River.

On Saturday morning, cleanup crews found a sheen of oil on the surface of the Columbia River near the crash site. A statement from Oregon officials says:

At a press conference this afternoon, a representative of the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality said "a small amount" of oil had entered the Columbia River.

The Washington Department of Ecology posted a photograph of that oil sheen (above). The Seattle Times has a detailed rundown of the implications. (The report initially suggested the sheen could affect the spring migration of chinook, but that line has been removed from the story.)

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