Accident Derailment Wabamun Alberta 2005/08/03

Milne · Aug 3, 2005

Fuel leaks after Alberta derailment
Last Updated Wed, 03 Aug 2005 12:37:43 EDT
CBC News
CN crews are cleaning up fuel oil after 43 train cars derailed near Edmonton early Wednesday morning. No one was injured.

Twenty-six of the cars that left the track contained bunker fuel oil, a heavy oil used to run ships, said CN spokesman Jim Feeny. Some of the containers are leaking into the ground and Wabamun Lake, he said

Lubricating oil is also leaking from another car, Feeny said.

One of the 140 rail cars travelling west along the CN main line was carrying toluene, a hazardous petrochemical used to make paint thinner, nail polish and adhesives, but Feeny said that container was intact after the derailment.

A number of homes in the area were evacuated as a precaution.

Feeny said booms have been set out to contain the spill, and dikes are being built along the length of the derailment. As well, vacuum trucks will be used to clean up the site.

The derailment happened around 5:20 a.m. local time, near Wabamun, Alta., about 45 minutes west of Edmonton. It has closed the CN's main line for at least 36 hours.

That means 240 Via Rail passengers who were travelling east have been stranded in Jasper; the accident will also affect those who are westbound.

The cause of the derailment is under investigation.
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Media report
Media report

Milne · Aug 4, 2005

Update

Train pileup spills oil
43 cars derail; no injuries, but 5 km slick hits lake wabamun

Larissa Liepins, with files from Hanneke Brooymans
The Edmonton Journal

Thursday, August 04, 2005

WHITEWOOD SANDS - A freight train derailed 65 kilometres west of Edmonton early Wednesday, spilling up to 1.3 million litres of oil, much of which made its way into Wabamun Lake.

There were no reported injuries in the 5:20 a.m. accident, but 22 residents of the Lakeside subdivision of Whitewood Sands, just west of the Village of Wabamun, were evacuated after industrial fuel from 15 tanker cars spilled onto the land and into the lake.

"When it happened, it was so loud I thought it was an airplane crash," said Wendy Roberts, who lives about two kilometres from the spill site.

By 4 p.m. the 300-metre-wide oil slick had spread five kilometres down the lake, occasionally hitting the shoreline along the way.

Out of 140 cars in a Vancouver-bound train from Edmonton, 43 derailed in three sections. Twenty-six of them contained a partially refined petroleum product called bunker C fuel.

CN spokesman Jim Feeny said the fuel leaked from cars that contained up to 88,586 litres each.

Lake Wabamun is 22 kilometres long and 8 kilometres across.

Twenty-eight cars near the front of the train derailed, while another 15 came off the tracks near the back end, crumpling into one another.

"They were piled like cordwood," said Agnes Rainer, who lives near the lakeshore. "There was a loud 'bang, bang, bang' as the train cars hit each other in a chain reaction. Then the power went off in the house and stayed off for two hours."

Charles Hutton's porch directly overlooks where the train derailed just metres away. Although he wasn't home at the time, a rock shattered the outside pane of glass of his livingroom window.

"I expect CN to offer some compensation for my busted up footbridge, too," said Hutton, as heavy equipment dragged away wrecked train cars.

All along the shore, the stench of oil filled the air as crews scrambled to contain the spill with dams and long absorbent booms.

Officials said the spill was contained at its source by 1:30 p.m. and the focus turned to the cleanup.

However, equipment used to skim the oil from the lake was still en route late Wednesday evening.

Cottage owners along the slick spent the afternoon frantically trying to keep the oil from reaching their shorelines.

Patti Kearn, who took possession of her Sherwin Beach cottage only one month ago, watched anxiously as the oil spread into the marshes at either side of her property.

"Every hour, it's getting closer and closer and we haven't seen one CN person and they don't answer our calls," said Kearn.

Capital Health inspected the site and later advised people against swimming, fishing or boating in the lake.

The Transportation Safety Board was investigating the cause of the derailment, but Feeny said it appears there was nothing wrong with the track. "Up to 35 trains ride this track every 24 hours. With such a busy line, we inspect twice a week."

Feeny said he didn't know whom residents should contact for information, adding, "I understand people are frustrated but a response of this nature takes time." Booms were not available to the public, he added.

Train pileup spills oil

But some locals who made their way to a nearby command centre obtained booms from Hazco, a company contracted by CN to help with the cleanup.

In the meantime, people evacuated from homes between the lake and the track will not be allowed to return until later today, at the earliest, Const. Craig Albers said.

Fred Lindsey, the local MLA, said: "The important thing is to get a perimeter around the whole spill."

However, Feeny said crews are merely trying to prevent the oil from spreading further. Traffic is not expected to resume on the transnational track until next week, he said.

Local residents expressed frustration that CN was focused more on clearing and fixing the track instead of dealing with the spill.

"They'll work around the clock on that track, but I haven't seen one single CN personnel out on the lake," said Bill Van Rassel, whose boat was coated in black, sticky oil from driving along the slick from Whitewood Sands to Wabamun.

"That stuff is like tar, not oil, so they might as well be using Q-Tips," said Rassel, referring to the thin white booms. "With a spill this size, they should have bigger, better equipment."

"We don't know who will be doing the cleanup, or when," said Brad Ledig, a spokesman for Alberta Environment.

Ledig said his department is only responsible for monitoring the quality of the environment by sampling water, soil and lake sediment as the cleanup progresses. "Our inspector says he hasn't come across any affected wildlife."

But at the foot of Rainer's waterfront property, scores of marsh birds were trying in vain to clean themselves of the oil that completely covered them. Several more birds in the water struggled to stay afloat.

Herons, loons, coots and ducks are common to the area, but no booms appear to have been deployed around any of the sensitive marsh environments.

The spill's effect could last a couple of years beyond the end of the cleanup, said Myles Kitagawa, associate director of the Toxics Watch Society of Alberta.

Kitagawa said he does not expect the ecological effects of this spill to be much different than a spill of crude oil.

People tend to be very interested in the immediate effects on the ecosystem because they can see images of blackened animals, which are poisoned or drowned by the oil. But Kitagawa said he expects almost everything in this ecosystem to be affected by the spill.

Given the damage these spills can cause, it's crucial to quickly contain and clean up these accidents, he said.

"I don't think we will ever be able to prevent accidents, so the next best thing to do is have a very sensitive and robust emergency response plan in place."

lliepins@thejournal.canwest.com

FUEL FACTS

Q: What is bunker C fuel?

A: This fuel oil is a sticky, black liquid similar in appearance and smell to asphalt sealing compounds. It is currently produced by blending the oil remaining after the refining process with lighter oil.

Q: Is bunker C oil toxic?

A: Bunker C fuel oil poses little threat to aquatic life because it does not disperse into the water column. The main threat to surface and shoreline organisms comes from the possibility of coating or smothering. The fuel oil is generally not toxic to plants or animals.

Q: What is it used for and why?

A: In addition to being used in the majority of large marine diesel engines, bunker oils are used in power generating stations, industrial boilers and furnaces, and pumping plants.

Q: How would bunker C oil behave if it was spilled in water?

A: Because it is less dense than water, fresh bunker C fuel oil would float in water either at or below the surface. As the oil ages, it becomes heavier, but it would still float under most conditions. It will form lumps or tar balls when it comes into contact with sand, sediment or other shoreline materials.

SOURCE: Environment Canada

Ran with fact box "Fuel Facts", which has been appended to this story.

© The Edmonton Journal 2005
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Link to media report

Milne · Aug 4, 2005

A few pictures from the Edmonton Journal showing the aftermath of the derailment -

The first two pictures show the containment boom being placed.

[ August 05, 2005, 06:35 AM: Message edited by: Milne ]

MechaMoose · Aug 4, 2005

Glad to hear no one was injured. What kind of locomotives where hauling the train?

Stourbridge Lion · Aug 5, 2005

WOW!!!!!!! What a mess...

Alan · Aug 5, 2005

Amazing how the cars piled up together. Was the train on a downgrade - there seems to have been a lot of momentum to derail so many cars.

Flash Blackman · Aug 5, 2005

Looks like one lonely box car sitting in the group all by itself.

BoxcabE50 · Aug 7, 2005

That's an ugly looking pileup. With the recent warm weather, probably another sun kink?

Boxcab E50

Milne · Aug 14, 2005

It's not often that you hear a minister of the Crown let loose in public with some ripe language, and almost never on national television.

So Alberta Environment Minister Guy Boutilier's assertion on the CBC's National that he was "p.... off" with CN's handling of the oil spill at Lake Wabamun got some attention. But, hey, frankly it was about time somebody said it.

There is huge disappointment among Albertans with the former national railway's handling of the Wabamun spill. The brass at Canada's premier transportation company appeared woefully slow in understanding the scope of the accident.

In fact, it wasn't until Boutilier called CN CEO Hunter Harrison, and used some more ripe language, that the company's Montreal-based executives really took notice. "The boss isn't used to getting calls like that," one old contact at CN told me.
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Media Report - Edmonton Sun

About 100 area residents have blocked the CN main line in protest over CN ignoring evnironmental laws.

Hytec · Aug 14, 2005

I applaud M. Boutilier's position and attitude. Although, I am surprised that the Canadian equivalent of the US Dept. of Transportation had not persuaded Parliament years ago to enact Federal legislation for immediate Federal, Provincial, and local agency notification, involvement, and policing authority in all(!) environmental disaster incidents.

BoxcabE50 · Aug 17, 2005

Originally posted by Milne:

It's not often that you hear a minister of the Crown let loose in public with some ripe language, and almost never on national television.
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It's about time someone stepped up, and let fly. Such fortitude is rare!

Boxcab E50
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Milne · Aug 21, 2005

Residents around Alta. lake expecting CN to compensate them for oil mess

John Cotter
Canadian Press

Sunday, August 21, 2005

WABAMUN, Alta. (CP) - People around a popular recreational lake in Alberta say they expect CN Rail to compensate them for turning the area into an environmental mess. An Aug. 3 spill of more than 700,000 litres of fuel oil and a potentially cancer-causing wood preservative effectively closed much of Lake Wabamun to boating, swimming and fishing.

Residents say they want CN to cut them cheques for everything from ruined vacations and loss of business to decreased property values and other hassles.
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Media report

BoxcabE50 · Aug 22, 2005

I fear this will be in court for a while. Claims like that might be hard to substantiate.

Boxcab E50

Hytec · Aug 22, 2005

Sadly, you are correct, but one can always hope that the courts will eventually side with professional morality and ethical correctness...

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Accident Derailment Wabamun Alberta 2005/08/03

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