Iowa Interstate Railroad Train Derailment
Bureau County, Illinois
A train derailment on October 7 near Tiskilwa resulted in several railroad cars containing
denatured ethanol and corn mash catching on fire and residual materials seeping into the soil.
The incident resulted in the temporary evacuation of the entire population of the village of
Tiskilwa in Bureau County after the early morning derailment. Some of the cars containing
ethanol were breached during the derailment. While some of the ethanol burned off in the
fire, an unknown quantity escaped and seeped into the soils putting groundwater at risk.
Technical staff from Illinois Environmental Protection Agency’s (Illinois EPA’s) Emergency
Response Unit and the Bureau of Water responded to oversee environmental threats and collected
samples, as needed.
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