Two days after the crash residents were allowed to return to their homes, and freight trains were running on the tracks, to the strong objection of the community.

The community then passed an emergency motion asking Union Pacific to remove all oil from the damaged cars before resuming the use of the tracks.

Union Pacific pushed the damaged cars out of the way and limited the train speed to 10 miles per hour (16 km/h) in the section.

Much of it was consumed by fire, some went into the Columbia River,[4] and 10,000 US gallons (38,000 L) were recovered from the city's sewage treatment plant.

[8] In response to the derailment and lack of investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board, Oregon Senators Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden introduced the Mandate Oil Spill Inspections and Emergency Rules (Mosier) Act which calls for a moratorium on oil train traffic after major wrecks and require the Department of Transportation to reduce the amount of volatile gases in the crude oil those trains have been hauling.