From the air, the upper Sacramento River south of town is a brilliant turquoise.
Just 36 hours after a derailed tanker carrying 19,500 gallons of weed killer fell belly-up into the river, the concentrated, luminous chemical could be seen along river bends for 15 miles. A finger of toxic green was less than a mile from Shasta Lake on Tuesday morning, and was expected to hit the Sacramento Arm of California`s largest reservoir later.
Department of Fish and Game officials said Tuesday they expect the weed killer, containing toxic metam sodium, to sink to the cold waters at the bottom of the Sacramento Arm, where they believe it will dissipate.
”We hope that 75 percent of Lake Shasta will stay contamination-free,”
said warden Alan Matthews. ”As for the river, there`s probably not a hell of a lot of life left.”
The danger is far from over for wildlife and residents of the Sacramento River canyon. Two communities, Sweet Briar and Castella, have been evacuated. Mercy Hospital in Mt. Shasta reported treating 190 people for nausea, sore throats and eye irritations. Many of the ill Tuesday were residents who thought it was safe to return home from the evacuation center.
”I went home and saw my dogs throwing up,” said Gene Hewlett of Dunsmuir at the high school evacuation center. ”The animals have stayed inside the house. The air still isn`t clean in there.”
The Hines family decided against venturing to their home in Castella, not even to learn the fate of their cats.
”The cats are probably dead, and we don`t want the same thing to happen to us,” said Pinky Hines, who with her husband and three children had moved to Shasta County from Santa Clara seven years ago.
”We thought we were moving away from the traffic and bad air and toxic messes like this,” said Hines after awaking from a restless sleep on a stiff cot. ”Some better quality of life this is. Hah.”
Residents fretted not only about their pets but also about river wildlife. Bears already have been sighted along riverbanks eating dead, contaminated fish.
Residents have found dead deer, otter and raccoons.
”And we`ve got a few bald eagle and osprey nests along that river with young still in them,” said Dave Webb, a wildlife biologist who lives in Mt. Shasta. ”As for the fish, they won`t be back for six, seven years at the best.”
California Fish and Game Department officials are taking air and water samples in an attempt to determine human health risk in the river area.
All motorists along Interstate 5 were being stopped at checkpoints and told to turn off their air conditioners and keep their windows rolled up through a 40-mile stretch. They also received handouts warning of the danger of breathing the air.
Southern Pacific railroad officials said they didn`t know what caused the derailment. The derailed tanker, en route from Los Angeles to Pasco, Wash., was part of 97-car train. Six cars and one locomotive derailed, but the other five tankers were empty.
As the spill moved slowly toward Shasta Lake, it may have exposed another vulnerability of California`s water supply, already ravaged by five years of drought. Most of the state`s fresh water moves through the Sacramento at some point, although many agencies draw their water far downstream, where the chemical is expected to pose no threat.
”We anticipate that through the degrading process and dilution, the impact (of the spill) probably will be minimal,” said Lou Baum, chief of operations at the state`s biggest reservoir.
