POLLUTION Contaminated Cargo

POLLUTION Contaminated Cargo

The 32-car train, carrying 2,400 tons of contaminated dirt, left Michigan nearly a month ago. Eight states later, it's still looking for a landfill. Like the New York garbage barge that sailed the seas for five months in 1987 before it finally disposed of its malodorous cargo back where it started and the "poo-poo choo-choo" filled with Baltimore sewage whose 1989 odyssey ended up back in Baltimore, the "dirt train" is unwanted.

The contaminated cargo originated in 1989 when a train carrying acrylic acid and other chemicals derailed in Freeland, Mich. CSX Transportation of Jacksonville, Fla., cleaned up the mess and...

Want the full story?

Subscribe Now

Subscribe
Subscribe

Learn more about the benefits of being a TIME subscriber

If you are already a subscriber sign up — registration is free!