Cleanup Continues After Derailed CSX Train Spills Oil

A cleanup was continuing in the Kanawha River in West Virginia on Sunday after an oil spill last week following the derailment of a CSX Corp train, though drinking water was not affected, the company and federal officials said.

Twenty seven of the train's 109 cars carrying 3.1 million gallons of crude oil from North Dakota to Virginia came off the rails on Feb. 16 in Mount Carbon, West Virginia, causing an explosion that left 19 cars ablaze. About 152,000 gallons have been recovered from the derailed tanks.

The Federal Railroad Administration is investigating the accident.

"A small amount of oil entered the Kanawha River as ice melted and water levels changed Sunday morning," the Unified Command response team, which includes CSX and state and federal agencies, said in a statement.

Empty tank cars were being removed from the site, the statement said. Response teams will remove contaminated soil and lay a new rail bed to rebuild the CSX tracks.

Reporting by Edward McAllister