on January 8, 2005, the United States Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) released to railroads a reminder of federal regulations on procedures for turnout operation and safety procedures. Among the federal rules regarding turnouts are: The normal position for turnouts on mainline tracks is for mainline through traffic. When trains are required to clear the mainline track, they will not report that the track is clear until there are no obstructions on the mainline track and all turnouts are set for the mainline position and locked in place. The FRA further recommended that railroads should: ensure that their internal regulations include adequate safety procedures regarding turnout position. implement a paper trail to ensure adequate inspection of turnout position before a mainline track is declared cleared. Litigation Avondale Mills filed suit against Norfolk Southern claiming that the railroad was negligent in its operations through Graniteville and that this alleged negligence was the root cause of the accident. After the accident, Avondale Mills was closed, laying off thousands of employees and paid more than $140 million on cleanup and repair expenses. The trial opened on March 10, 2008, in federal court in Columbia, South Carolina. On April 7, 2008, Norfolk Southern and interests representing Avondale Mills, and its surviving entities, reached a confidential out of court settlement. On April 24, 2008, Norfolk Southern was sued by the U.S. EPA for violations of the Clean Water Act, as Horse Creek had been polluted. In a similar lawsuit in Pennsylvania, where a derailed Norfolk Southern runaway train crashed, the state of Pennsylvania sued the railroad for similar violations and won several million dollars for environmental remediation. However, fines may be minimal when compared to the damage to the surrounding environment. On March 8, 2010, Norfolk Southern Railway Company agreed to pay $4 million penalty to resolve alleged violations of the Clean Water Act (CWA) and hazardous materials laws for a 2005 chlorine spill in Graniteville, S.C. Under the settlement filed in federal court in Columbia, S.C., Norfolk Southern will be required to pay a civil penalty of $3,967,500 for the alleged CWA violations, to be deposited in the federal Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund. The alleged CWA violations, included in an amended complaint filed in March 2009, are for the discharge of tons of chlorine, a hazardous substance, from a derailed train tank car and thousands of gallons of diesel fuel from ruptured locomotive engine