9 April 2008
No Environmental Danger After Crash: CPR
| |
Crews clean up the scene of a three-train crash
Tuesday.
|
Ralph Saskatchewan - Canadian Pacific Railway is saying
environmental damage is unlikely due to a Monday morning derailment in southeastern Saskatchewan.
CPR's assistant vice-president of operations, Scott MacDonald, was out at the accident site between Ralph and Halbrite on
Tuesday as crews busily worked to reopen the stretch of track on which the derailment occurred. While he said some cars contained
so-called "regulated commodities," CPR had environmental experts on the scene who determined the air quality of
the area had not been affected.
"The black smoke you did see was the plastic pellets that were burning," he said about the large plume of smoke that was
visible for kilometres following the accident. "There were two cars of glycol (anti-freeze). They were in the fire.
However, at no time was there a danger to the environment or the community with those cars."
He said soil testing has yet to be done, but MacDonald did not anticipate it would turn up any environmental hazards either. He would
not go into detail as to what other regulated materials were on the trains.
"I can tell you there are no environmental issues at this time," he said, adding that CPR cleans up the site after any
incident and works with environmental experts during the process.
CPR officials are now trying to determine exactly what led to the three-train collision. While Weyburn's fire chief said
earlier that operator error is believed to be the cause, MacDonald said it is too early to speculate as CPR and the Transportation
Safety Board are still conducting an investigation.
What is known is that at about 8:15 a.m. Monday one train stopped to allow an oncoming train to pass on the siding. While both were
stationary, a third train came up behind at the stop point and hit the back of the first train. Two-man crews on each
train were uninjured but shaken up. The impact caused 10 cars to derail, and two are believed to have caught fire, with a grass fire
starting after that.
Six families were evacuated within a two-kilometre radius and traffic on Highway 39 was rerouted around the accident site.
Fire crews, who had previously remained back due to the risk of explosion or exposure to possible hazardous materials, were able to
move in to fight the fire at about 1 a.m. Tuesday. The fire was extinguished by 3 a.m.
At 9 a.m., the evacuation order for the area around the derailment site was lifted and families were allowed to return home. Highway 39
was reopened for traffic at about the same time, MacDonald said.
The siding area of the track was reopened at about 3:30 p.m., allowing backed-up trains to begin moving. It was unknown
how long it would take to clear the entire stretch of track involved.
While there has been some impact on CPR - about 13 to 16 trains pass through the area each day - the effect is expected to be
"minimal" due to the ability to reroute some of those trains, MacDonald said.
He said CPR, along with fire crews and police, were able to implement emergency response protocol quickly after the incident occurred,
in part because of mock emergency scenarios that are routinely practised. The Weyburn Fire Department had taken part in such an
exercise with CPR about two years ago, MacDonald said.
"For us in the RMs, it's all about building relationships and trust," he said. "You never want to have these types of
situations, but when they do happen, you want to be prepared and be able to execute your plans. When we came on site here, we knew a
lot of the people that we were dealing with, so you just very quickly put your plans in action."
The federal and provincial environment departments referred comment to CPR.
|
