Train Spills Contaminated Soil in NJ; No Health Threat, Officials Say

A train car loaded with contaminated soil from a construction site at a former pharmaceutical plant overturned Saturday in a New Jersey community, police said.

The rail car contained soil from a construction site at the former Hoffmann-La Roche pharmaceutical campus in Nutley, New Jersey.

Authorities stressed that the accident posed no public health threat.

"Nobody was injured and the company that was transporting the dirt has a crew and equipment on the way to remove the cars and clean up," Nutley Police Chief Thomas Strumolo told NBC 4 New York.

Most of the contaminated soil remained in the rail car, which landed on its side. Several other cars were tilting on the track.

It appeared that the ground under a portion of the train track had collapsed, causing the accident, Strumolo said.

Hoffmann-La Roche is working with federal and state environmental agencies to clean up the site, which has be found to be tainted with industrial solvents and heavy metals.

The contaminated soil is being removed from a site where Seton Hall University and Hackensack University Heath Network plan to build a new medical school. 

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