Moved by memories of Cantara Loop spill, Dunsmuir company aids Ohio town after derailment

…Pallets of bottled water is ready to be loaded on a truck for delivery to the people of East Palestine, Ohio.
Uber Freight donated the truck to carry water on its 2,500-mile trip from Siskiyou County to East Palestine near the Ohio-Pennsylvania border, Siskiyou County Economic Development Council spokesperson Kory Hayden said.

“Castle Rock Water is estimating a March 6 sendoff date,” Hayden said, after winter storms made road travel impossible the week of Feb. 27.

“The people of East Palestine are so excited we’re sending this water,” said Marshall, who contacted nonprofit the Way Station about sending "fresh cleansing water" to the town's residents.

The nonprofit is distributing emergency assistance and other aid to Ohioans affected by the spill, according to Way Station Executive Director Chaney Nezbeth.

Dunsmuir, a historical town with a population of 1,710, feels a certain kinship with East Palestine (population of 4,71, Hayden said. Both are small railroad towns.

Dunsmuir residents know how it feels to have their home threatened by a chemical disaster, said Hayden, 43, who was in middle school in Etna when Dunsmuir faced its own toxic disaster…


…On July 14, 1991, freight cars overturned along the Cantara Loop near Dunsmuir, dumping more than 19,000 gallons of metam sodium into the Sacramento River. The herbicide flowed more than 40 miles south into Lake Shasta, killing millions of animals along the way. It also made Dunsmuir residents ill.

It took 12 years to rehabilitate the river, according to a report from the Cantara Trustee Council, formed to address restoration and public education. The spill killed more than a million fish, tens of thousands of amphibians and crayfish, millions of aquatic invertebrates including insects and mollusks, and hundreds of thousands of willow, alder and cottonwood trees…








Read more:
www.redding.com/story/news/2023/03/03/dunsmuir-site-of-1991-cantara-loop-spill-sends-aid-to-east-palestine/69960781007/






I’m so proud of nearby Dunsmuir doing this. It’s great to see like minded Americans helping each other out. Especially since our federal government won’t do so. Dunsmuir is a neat little Sacramento River canyon town near the Shasta -Siskiyou county line that is well worth a stop on I-5. It has a preserved old downtown, a nice river park and garden, two waterfalls, and a railroad museum, hotel, restaurant as well as nearby castle crags state park. The best water on earth is there too.

 

In related news.... East Palestine now identifies as part of the Ukraine in hopes of receiving aid from the Biden administration....

Billions in aid money are now on the way.

 

I remember that spill off a railroad bridge directly into the river right in front of a waterfall that descends right into the river. It was terrible. I can only imagine what East Palestine is going through right now.

 

And Biden hasn't done anything but send BILLIONS to Ukraine.

 

Sad but true. At least Americans are helping out other Americans here.

 

Good on the people of Dunsmuir. This kind of camaraderie should be celebrated. This is what we should be seeing on social and news media.