2 August 2006
Tonnes of Coal Put Fish at Risk
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About 20 cars from a CP train heading west left the track near
Lytton.
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Cisco British Columbia - Lytton town residents were left
wondering Tuesday what a 20-car train derailment near their town will mean to the health of salmon in the area, and to
their white-water rafting industry.
Just after 11 p.m. Monday, 31 Jul 2006, 20 cars from a 124-car Canadian Pacific coal train travelling west to
Vancouver left the track on a railway bridge over the Thompson River, near where it meets the Fraser (Editor: At Cisco.).
Eight of the cars remained on the bridge, but 12 plunged into the river below.
No one was hurt, but B.C. Environment Ministry spokesman Don McDonald noted each car had a carrying capacity of 100 tonnes, so it's
possible as many as 1,200 tonnes of coal were dumped into the river.
On Tuesday, officials from both CP and CN, which share that stretch of track, as well as from the Canadian Transportation Safety Board,
were at the scene trying to figure out what happened.
"The cause has not yet been determined," CN spokesman Jim Feeny said Tuesday afternoon. "So at this point we cannot say
what the problem is."
"We can't say how fast the train was going or anything else," said CP spokesman Ed Greenberg. "But all the factors will
be analysed, including the locomotive, the train, the track and the conditions at the time."
Neither he nor Feeny could say how long it will be before the rail cars are lifted from the river.
"We have to get the cars off the bridge first so that it is safe to work underneath," Feeny said. "Our people are now
assessing the situation with respect to the cars down below."
B.C. Environment Ministry officials and Department of Fisheries and Oceans staff were also on the scene trying to figure out how much
harm has been done to fish and other wildlife in the area.
"We don't know what the effects are yet," said McDonald. "Testing has begun."
The possibility that 1,200 tonnes of coal has been dumped into the river has Lytton residents worried.
"The whole community is concerned because it's a mess," said Jean Dall of the Lytton Visitors Centre. "The big concern
with the fish is that they're just starting to run. So it's going to mean a big disruption."
Bernie Fandrich, who runs Kumsheen Rafting Resort in Lytton, said he, like many rafting company operators, has had to change the course
of his trips because of the derailment.
"This is the height of our season," Fandrich said. "August is our busiest month. We do 40 percent of our business in
August. So this is tough."
He said that, when he visited the site on Tuesday morning, he was told it might take a week to remove the cars from the river. But he
added: "That's a wild stab in the dark. They don't really know."
It was the 19th derailment in Canada this year, and the second in B.C. in just over a month.
On 29 Jun 2006, a CN freight train left the track near Lillooet, killing two people and injuring a third. The cause of that
derailment is still under investigation, Feeny said.
NDP environment critic Shane Simpson said that, given the number of derailments in the area, "there has to be a question about the
safety of these trains."
"We've called on the Ministry of Transportation in B.C. to do a full review of safety practices with our railway to determine why
this is happening, and the minister keeps fobbing it off on the federal government."
Sylvia Leband of the United Transportation Union said the union also is concerned about the derailment.
"We know there needs to be some improvements to the safety rules," Leband said. "And that's the direction the union is
taking - to lobby our political representatives."
Dall said the derailment occurred close to the point where the blue water of the Thompson meets the brown of the Fraser.
The confluence point is a major tourist attraction for visitors to the area.
"But now it's black," she said.
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