BNSF Railway tracks near Alma where train derailed and spilled ethanol return to service

ALMA — The BNSF Railway tracks where a train derailment caused an ethanol spill last weekend have been returned to service in western Wisconsin.

The company says trains will run once again on the tracks near Alma. BNSF says the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources jointly conducted water samplings and lab analysis show the derailment and ethanol spill was not harmful to aquatic life.

On Saturday, 25 BNSF train cars including tankers derailed, spilling as much as 20,000 gallons of ethanol from five tankers along the shores of the Mississippi River into the water.

It was the first of two train derailments last weekend. On Sunday, a Canadian Pacific train derailed in southern Wisconsin, spilling hundreds of gallons of crude oil and causing an evacuation of a Watertown neighborhood.