Derailment of Dangerous commodities

February 28, 2007

Train derails, spills chemicals in Golden

By TARINA WHITE -- Sun Media

Schools in Golden were closed today after a CP Rail train jumped the tracks in the Rocky Mountains, spilling a car’s chemical payload.

Eight cars from an eastbound freight train left the tracks about 4 a.m., 5 km east of the B.C. town, said CP spokesman Ed Greenberg.

Environmental concerns were raised when one of the derailed tankers began leaking hydrochloric acid.

Initially, there were concerns the substance could leak into a nearby tributary that leads to the Kicking Horse River, but Greenberg said those fears have been allayed by environmental experts.

“There appears to be no environmental impacts,” he said.

“It has not reached any waterway.”

Greenberg said it’s unknown what caused the derailment.

“We’re going to be doing a detailed investigation into not only what the cause was but what led to the cause,” he said.

The Transportation Safety Board of Canada is conducting its own investigation, said Greenberg, and Environment Canada has also been notified about the chemical spill.

Greenberg said the 90-car train did not appear to be travelling faster than the track speed of 40 km/h.

Two CP Rail staff on board the train when the accident happened weren’t injured, said Greenberg.

The seven other cars that came off the tracks were hauling sodium hydroxide, lumber and railway ties.

Five schools in Golden shut down for the day in response to the chemical spill, said Steve Jackson with Rocky Mountain School District #6.

Jackson said the decision to keep the town’s 1,200 students at home was made before the severity of the spill was known.

“As a precaution, we closed the schools because we’ve got a couple of schools that are very close to the river,” he said.

“We decided to err on the side of student safety.”

The schools are expected to re-open tomorrow, said Jackson.