Portage Creek Disaster Weighs Heavily on Pennsylvanians

As we reported on July 6, a Norfolk Southern train derailed near Gardeau, Pennysylvania and dumped 48,000 gallons of caustic soda into Portage Creek, causing a total loss of aquatic life in at least 10 miles of the stream. State officials are now trying to come up with financial estimates for the cost of restoration, while many distraught locals are wondering how to keep something like this from happening again.
“Two days after the spill, [watershed specialist Jim] Zoschg visited one of his favorite fishing spots along the Driftwood Branch of the Sinnemahoning Creek, about 16 miles downstream of the derailment. Instead of a fly rod, Zoschg carried a digital camera. ‘I was thinking, “I should be down here fishing wet flies, and here I am photographing dead fish,”‘ he said.” Christian Berg in Pennsylvania’s The Morning Call.