14 August 2008
Rail Cars Likely to Stay in Water
Rossport Ontario - Two CPR rail cars that ended up in the
drink near Rossport last winter following a derailment are likely to remain underwater for eternity like other Lake Superior wrecks.
And it makes no difference that the cars - which contain bleached wood pulp, but no fuel or dangerous goods - fall within a proposed
marine conservation area.
Federal and provincial environmental officials who reviewed the cars' position say it would likely do more harm than good to try to
retrieve them.
"There could be quite a disturbance to the embankment to try and drag them out," Neville Ward, a Thunder
Bay-based habitat biologist with the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans, said Wednesday.
The cars, which rolled down the remote embankment 21 Jan 2008 after coming loose from a 66-car freight train, are about
eight to 15 metres below the surface.
They were inspected by a dive team and are not expected to pose any threat to Superior fish species, like lake trout, added Ward.
CPR spokeswoman Breanne Feigel said the provincial and federal departments have accepted the railway's proposal to leave the cars where
they are.
The removal of the cars is deemed to be "undesirable" due to the extreme weight of the waterlogged material the cars contain,
said Feigel.
Before the cars went off the rails, their weight was pegged at 115 tonnes each.
Kal Pristanski, chairman of the interim management board for the proposed National Marine Conservation Area between Terrace Bay and
Thunder Cape, said he wasn't concerned about the cars remaining where they are. "I'm sure they would have checked what the cars
contained," said Pristanski, noting the lake's north shore contains other train wrecks.
The cause of January's derailment remains under investigation and hasn't been released, added Feigel.
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