CP
discovers more oil spilled in White River derailment
Clean-up
efforts were continuing Thursday near White River, Ont., where more
than 63,000 litres of oil were spilled from a freight train after 22
cars came off the rails.
4
April 2013
Canadian
Pacific Rail revised its estimate of how much oil was leaked. Initial
reports on Wednesday said about 600 litres of oil had leaked from the
tank cars.
"The
source of the now-discovered release of product from the second car
was initially hidden as it was buried under snow. The product then
migrated a short distance under the snow," said CP spokesperson
Ed Greenburg.
"The
additional spill was detected and the product was quickly contained
as part of the railway's mitigation procedures. Soil and ground water
sampling around and below the site is being conducted [Thursday].
There is no indication from any of the sampling sites that the
product has migrated beyond the containment berms."
A
spokesperson with Ontario's Ministry of the Environment said there is
no risk to the health and safety of nearby residents, from the spill
that took place east of White Lake Provincial Park, 10 km west of
White River and 20 km upstream from Pic Mobert First Nation. The
spill was only about 200 metres from the White River.
"Crews
were able to get on the site and put down berms and dig trenches and
take the appropriate remediation measures to prevent there from being
an adverse impact to the natural environment," said Lisa
Brygidyr, issues management co-ordinator for the ministry’s
northern region
She
said it's too early to tell if there will be any lasting
environmental impact.
"A
spill like this one, depending on the migration and the quantity of
materials that is spilled to the ground, can have impacts to the
environment," Brygidyr said.
"But
in this case, luckily the oil was pooled and it did not migrate
toward the river. The spilled material was in a pooled area and any
migration was going in the opposite direction of the river."
Train
operation being evaluated
It
could take anywhere from a couple of days to a couple of weeks for
full assessment, she added.
"Our
environment officer at the site is satisfied that work is being
carried out to prevent any further impact and there is no health and
safety threat at all from this derailment."
Meanwhile,
a crew from the Transportation Safety Board is investigating the
cause of the derailment.
According
to the manager for central regional operations for the rail/pipe
branch with the TSB, a team arrived late Wednesday evening.
"They're
in the process now of working through what they've seen and they'll
be back there [Thursday] looking at some rail and some wheels of
interest," Rob Johnston said, and noted they’ll likely have
them on site until the end of the week, at which time they will
reassess the situation.
"In
every investigation we evaluate the operation of the train," he
said.
"We
will look at the condition of the rolling stock and we will also
assess the condition of the track infrastructure."
At
least one other tank car of oil is intact. Two tank cars with canola
oil also leaked, but that leak is not considered dangerous.
CP
rail said the rail line was re-opened Thursday evening after track
repairs and inspections.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.