The cleanup of three tons to four tons of soda ash along a railroad line between Kaysville and Clearfield is going slower than Davis County environmental officials would like.
"I'm not overly impressed with the cleanup so far," said Rich Harvey, head of the county's environmental health division.The soda ash was first seen leaking from a Southern Pacific Railroad gondola car on a siding in Kaysville Sunday. Efforts to halt the leak and clean up the spill at that site, which Harvey said may be up to a ton of the powder, snagged when Southern Pacific said that Union Pacific Railroad is responsible because the track belongs to Union Pacific and Union Pacific was hauling the car.
When Union Pacific was notified, it sent an engine to the site and hauled the leaking gondola car to Clearfield, spreading another couple tons of the caustic powder along six or seven miles of track.
Harvey said a vacuum truck was supposed to be on site Wednesday, sucking up the ash, but it failed to show.
"We're trying to find out what happened and why things aren't moving along the way they should be," said Harvey.
Soda ash is a caustic powder, used commonly to make soap and detergent, Harvey said. It can cause skin burns and eye irritation.
Harvey said the powder has been cleaned up from all of the road crossings on the Union Pacific line but much of it remains on the ground.
The snow that fell Wednesday night could complicate matters and broaden the effect of the spill, Harvey said.
Soda ash is soluble and if the snow melts quickly or it rains, the ash will dissolve and run off into drainage and possibly irrigation ditches. That could result in the death of fish or other aquatic plants and animals, Harvey said.
"We're not in too bad a shape on the rail line itself. The soda ash was spread pretty thin along there and some precipitation or runoff wouldn't hurt much there," Harvey said.
"What we're worried about is the big piles that leaked from the car. If that starts washing away, it could lead to some problems," he said.
Harvey said as of Thursday morning he was still trying to determine the extent of what has been cleaned up and what efforts are being made on the remainder of the spill.
The county has the legal option of taking over the cleanup, calling in private contractors to do the work and then billing the railroad for it, Harvey said.
It hasn't reached that level of seriousness yet, Harvey said, but the delay in the cleanup makes it more likely that a fine or citation may be issued in the incident.