Three railroad cars that were leaking a petroleum product after a freight train derailed in Harmar on Thursday afternoon have been secured with “no immediate signs” that it leaked into a nearby stream feeding into the Allegheny River, Norfolk Southern railroad officials said Friday morning.

Freeport Road is expected to remain closed in both directions in that area for several days, but the cleanup operation could result in the road being shut down for up to a week. Recovery crews are working a 24/7 operation, the county reported late Thursday.

Allegheny County emergency management officials said visual inspections of the site appear to confirm the company’s findings, but federal environmental officials plan to test the water to be sure.

Ann DiDonato, the on-scene coordinator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, said samples will be draw from the river over the weekend for analysis.

State environmental officials said they also have been investigating the impact of the spill.

“At this point we haven’t observed any fish kills or impact to aquatic life, and we’ll continue to monitor that,” said Lauren Fraley, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Environmental Protection.

She said the Oakmont, Wilkinsburg-Penn and Pittsburgh water authorities were notified of the derailment but they have “not experienced any service interruptions or issues.”

She said Oakmont shut its intake system down for four hours as a precaution, but they did not experience any problems and resumed service.

The eastbound train hit a heavy equipment truck carrying stone at the crossing into a sewage treatment plant along Freeport Road at 3:15 p.m., company officials said.

The train consisted of four locomotives, 109 loaded cars and 116 empty cars.

Seventeen cars and engines were derailed.

Allegheny County officials late Thursday said nine of the cars went off a railroad bridge and into Guys Run. The site is near the Allegheny Valley Joint Sewage Authority treatment plant just upriver from the Hulton Bridge.

Three people were taken to a hospital following the crash. Two members of the train’s crew who were hurt have been released from the hospital, company officials said.

The driver of the truck also was hurt, but was expected to be released from the hospital on Friday evening or Saturday, according to authorities.

The leaking fluid was a petroleum distillate, which is a complex blend of hydrocarbons used in making petroleum products, railroad officials said.

Local emergency responders initially reported that the leaking tanker cars were carrying a petroleum product called sweet crude oil that may have leaked in to the water, but railroad officials said that information was incorrect.

Matthew Brown, chief of Allegheny County’s Emergency Management Services, said the initial response to the derailment was based on a presumption that chemicals spilled into the water.

“There were a multitude of cars and there could have been any number of things leaking, including oil or diesel from the locomotive,” he said. “Out of an abundance of caution, hazmat crews boomed the river under the presumption that it leaked into the water.”

Other cars that went into the creek contained plastic pellets, some of which ended up in the water.

Booms were deployed to contain the pellets so they can be retrieved. A boom is a floating piece of plastic used to contain things floating on water’s surface.

Freeport Road detour

Freeport Road traffic is detoured to Powers Run Road/Fox Chapel Road on the O’Hara (downriver) side of the scene and to Guys Run Road on the Harmar side, according to PennDOT.

Traffic crossing the Hulton Bridge from Oakmont is being directed toward O’Hara.

Harmar police Chief Jason Domaratz said Friday afternoon there have been no traffic problems caused by the road closure. He said he has not heard when Freeport Road might be reopened to traffic.

Ditto on the other side of the road closure in Fox Chapel, police Chief Michael Stevens said he hasn’t seen a spike in traffic trying to get around the closed road via residential streets.

“Pretty normal traffic day for us,” he said Friday.

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