MESA COUNTY, Colo. — A train derailment on Tuesday evening spilled thousands of gallons of diesel into the Gunnison River, and Denver7 is learning more about possible impacts to the river's wildlife, which includes one of North America's most endangered fish species sitting on the brink of extinction.
The derailment happened at 10:53 p.m. Tuesday near Whitewater, according to the Colorado Public Utilities Commission (PUC). Two crew members were treated at a hospital and released.
Rockfall on the rail corridor was the likely cause of the crash, PUC's Office of Rail Safety said Wednesday.
Heavy equipment was used to extract the train cars in the water and complete hazmat cleanup. The PUC added that Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) biologists were analyzing impacts to fish.
To learn more about what that process has looked like, and if anything had been discovered, Denver7 reached out to CPW Thursday morning.
On Friday afternoon, after speaking with the agency's aquatic biologists, John Livingston, southwest region public information officer with CPW, provided more details.
He said an estimated 8,120 gallons of diesel entered the water. The PUC confirmed on Wednesday that the Grand Junction Fire Department had deployed booms to capture about 4,460 gallons of fuel.
Livingston explained that the biologists had collected water samples between the crash site down to the Highway 141 bridge. Diesel had been observed in about 26 miles of the river, he said.
"As of now, we have not observed a fish kill," he said. "However, it is too early to say what impacts are to aquatic life at this time, and we will continue to monitor. It is not uncommon to see a bigger impact on fish in days following a spill."
Fish along this stretch of river include "bluehead and flannelmouth sucker, roundtail chub, dace, razorback sucker and potentially pikeminnow along with some bonytail chub," which are all native, Livingston said. Non-native white suckers also live in those waters.
Denver7 took a look at each of these species and found that bonytail chub are the "rarest of the endangered, native fish of the Colorado River," CPW's website reads. They are endangered at both the state and federal level.
"Today, the bonytail is among North America’s most endangered fish species," the website continues. "Its distribution and numbers are so low that it is threatened with extinction. No reproducing populations are known in the wild."
A conservation effort is well underway at the Native Aquatic Species Restoration Facility in Alamosa.
The pikeminnow and razorback sucker are also listed as federally and state endangered species. Roundtail chub are of state special concern, CPW's website reads.
Livingston said downstream impacts to the Colorado River are also possible and a sensitive population of humpback chubs live there. They are federally endangered and threatened at the state level.
He said CPW will continue to monitor the situation in the coming weeks and months.
In the meantime, duck hunters who frequent areas downstream of the derailment site should consider avoiding it for the time being.
Denver7 will continue to follow any new developments in this incident.
