Derailment blocks fuel supply (to AZ, NV)

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Inland Valley Daily Bulletin

Derailment blocks fuel supply

Rain results in interruption of gas flow to Arizona, Nevada
By MELISSA PINION-WHITT
STAFF WRITER

Thursday, October 21, 2004 - FONTANA - Two pipelines - including one that provides about 70 percent of Arizona's gasoline, diesel and jet fuel - remained shut down Thursday as crews surveyed damage from a rain-related train derailment.

Union Pacific railroad workers spent the day removing two box cars and a tanker filled with chlorine that had fallen on a nearby 20-inch pipeline that serves Phoenix.

Meanwhile, workers began excavating and inspecting a 16-inch pipeline that sends fuel to Las Vegas.

(snip)

The box cars and tanker derailed Wednesday morning in Fontana onto the 20-inch line after rain eroded the land beneath the Union Pacific railroad tracks, Fontana police and Kinder Morgan officials said. Businesses and homes in the industrial area nearby were evacuated as a precaution, but no injuries were reported, San Bernardino County fire officials said. The 16-inch pipeline was also shut down because the rain had washed out soil around the line, which is just feet away from the 20-inch pipeline, Rainey said.

(snip)

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Melissa Pinion-Whitt can be reached by e-mail at [e-mail] or by phone at [phone]

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