Cleanup of Winona oil spill begins Thursday

Cleanup begins Thursday on a section of railroad track near Winona, Minn., where a Canadian Pacific train spilled oil earlier this week.

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency is requiring the company to clean up portions of the spill where puddles of oil have accumulated or are on top of snow.

Crews will use a vacuum truck to remove the oil, said Canadian Pacific spokesman Ed Greenberg.

"We are going to do some additional cleanup in an area of our track in Winona," he said. In some places, oil "dribbled out as the train was coming to a safe and controlled stop so the crew could inspect the car that was involved in the situation."

In all, the Canadian Pacific Railway train dribbled about 12,000 gallons of crude oil along 70 miles of track between Red Wing, Minn., and Winona on Monday.

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency and Department of Natural Resources will continue to monitor the area for oil runoff this spring as temperatures warm and snow melts, officials said.