MARYVILLE (WATE) – Friday marks one year since a train carrying a flammable liquid derailed in Blount County, catching fire and forcing thousands of people to leave their homes.

After the derailment and evacuations, lawsuits started to be filed, some on behalf of residents and first responders. There are two lawsuits in federal court.

Joyce Sutton has lived in her Maryville home for 30 years. Her property runs beside the railroad tracks and her home is just 200 feet away. Just before midnight on July 1 last year, she heard a loud noise.

“It was scary because I didn’t know if it was coming over in my yard or come up close to my house when I heard the loud noise,” said Sutton.

The next morning just before 6 a.m. she and her husband were told to evacuate. In the rush she left her animals behind and when she saw the smoke on the news, she started to worry.

“I saw how close it was to our house and it could have been in our yard that’s how close it was,” said Sutton.

Sutton says if there is a class action lawsuit she wants to be included as a plaintiff. Attorneys including Doug Nichol have filed a federal lawsuit against CSX and the Union Tank Car Company on behalf of half a dozen residents.

“The railroad was negligent basically in failing to keep their train on the tracks,” said Sutton.

Nichol says CSX has a responsibility to make sure trains are properly inspected and maintained.

“In this case not only did they allow it to derail through improper inspection and maintenance, but they drug it for about nine miles causing it to rupture and catch on fire in a residential neighborhood,” said Nichol.

Nichol alleges the fire caused the chemical acrylonitrile to be released in the air.

“It is a carcinogen, a cancer causing agent, that was allowed to be released into the atmosphere a lot of them breathed that and are worried about that. There was a lot of fear and anxiety and some of them still experiencing that,” said Nichol.

Nichol says people who live nearby are seeking compensation due to the evacuations, the inconvenience, cost and possible health concerns.

Some Blount County sheriff’s deputies and Alcoa police officers have filed a separate federal lawsuit against CSX and the Union Tank Car Company alleging they were exposed to the chemicals while responding to the derailment. The lawsuit states they were hospitalized for 30 hours for treatment. The suit claims CSX should have done more to prevent derailments and the Union Tank Car Company should have tank cars designed not to release toxic chemicals.

Sutton worries another accident like this could happen again.

“There could be trains in my yard you know so that would really be scary. I’m just hoping and praying it doesn’t ever happen,” said Sutton.

No ruling has been made in first responder case. The judge is expected to decide if the residents’ lawsuit will be a class action lawsuit by the end of the summer, then additional residents will be involved. Nichol expects the trial to take place in a year or two.

More coverage: CSX Train Derailment

A Union Tank Car Company media spokesperson said they will not comment on pending litigation. CSX also will not comment on pending lawsuits, but did release a statement about the derailment:

We appreciate our ongoing relationship with the City of Maryville and its residents, and we value the open dialogue we have maintained with them over this past year. At CSX, safety is our first priority – for our employees and the communities we serve. It’s a core value our employees live by every day, and it especially influences the way we engage with communities impacted by a rail-related incident.  CSX’s focus following any incident is the safety of the public, even after the immediate emergency response is over. We remain committed to our partners in Maryville as we continue environmental monitoring and open discussions about our response and restoration efforts.

INITIAL RESPONSE

In the hours, days and weeks that followed the July 1, 2015 derailment, CSX personnel worked alongside first responders, officials and volunteers from the City of Maryville, Blount County and the Town of Alcoa. Together we deployed a comprehensive community response plan, which prioritized the needs of the community and immediately mobilized significant resources to minimize the impact to neighbors and the environment. Within 24 hours we opened a Community Outreach Center staffed with CSX personnel and volunteers to offer resources including lodging, food, access to prescription medications and pet care to evacuated families. We also began air, water and soil monitoring in conjunction with federal and state environmental agencies to quickly identify and mitigate any impact to the environment and prevent potential impacts to public health and safety.

Today, we’re continuing ground water monitoring in coordination with the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) Water Resources Division. The only detections continue to be in the ground water monitoring wells in the immediate vicinity of the derailment site. Sampling results continue to show no detections in any of the private water wells in the community. CSX will continue monitoring under the direction of TDEC. We’re also coordinating with the Federal Railroad Administration on the ongoing investigation into the cause of the derailment.

Throughout the past year, we’ve kept an open dialogue with community leaders in Maryville, keeping them informed of the ongoing environmental monitoring and assessing and responding to community needs. We will continue updating them and listening to their feedback, which can help CSX improve the way we respond to rail-related incidents.

At CSX, we’re always implementing new technologies that help us become a safer and more efficient railroad. Technology complements our robust maintenance, inspections and training programs. As one example, the Track Geometry Cars travel across the CSX network each week, scanning tracks and bridges with an assortment of lasers and acoustic devices and giving us precise assessments of track conditions. The Geometry Cars give CSX track managers the information they need to prioritize maintenance crew assignments and more efficiently address track improvements. Technology like this, combined with on-the-ground verification by CSX experts, is opening doors to new possibilities in the realm of safety and we are working diligently to maximize the benefits we can derive from the data we’re collecting.

CSX also remains committed to training local first responders who work in the communities we serve, empowering them with the skills and knowledge they need to respond to rail-related emergencies. Last year, CSX safety experts trained and provided access to training for more than 7,000 first responders, including a group from Blount County.

THE FUTURE

Looking forward, we will continue exploring new opportunities to enhance safety on our railroad and we will refine our community response efforts as we get valuable feedback from the communities we serve. We value the feedback we have received so far from officials and first responders in Maryville, and we will continue to maintain an open line of communication – not just with public officials, but with community members as well. We encourage community members to call 1-877-TellCSX (1-877-835-5279) with any rail-related concerns or questions they may have.

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