(The Canadian Press circulated the following story by Dirk Meissner on April 13.)
VICTORIA — Search warrants were executed yesterday at CN Rail offices in British Columbia and Alberta related to the 2005 train derailment and the spill of caustic soda into the Cheakamus River, north of Vancouver.
Environment Canada officers were at CN offices in Edmonton, Surrey and Prince George with warrants, B.C. Environment Minister Barry Penner said. B.C. conservation officers were at the Prince George and Surrey CN offices during the searches, he said.
More than 500,000 adult and young salmon, steelhead, trout, lamprey and other species were killed after the derailment in August, 2005, that spilled toxic caustic soda into the river about 45 kilometres north of Vancouver.
“This is in relation to the ongoing investigation pertaining to the Cheakamus Canyon derailment and spill of 41,000 litres of caustic soda,” Mr. Penner said.
“It’s been an ongoing investigation and today search warrants were executed: one in Edmonton, two in Surrey — two different offices in Surrey — and one in Prince George.”
A CN Rail spokesman confirmed that the offices in Alberta and British Columbia were the locations of the searches.
“The search warrants were in relation to the August, 2005, derailment in Cheakamus, B.C., and CN co-operated with the search,” spokesman Jim Feeny said.
“All I can say is they were looking for and they obtained information relating to the August, 2005, derailment,” said Mr. Feeny, who said he could not provide more specifics about what the investigators were looking for or may have removed from the offices.
Mr. Penner said the derailment is still the subject of numerous government probes and may eventually result in charges.
Transport Canada and the Transportation Safety Board of Canada are concluding investigations, and Environment Canada, Department of Fisheries and Oceans and the B.C. Environment Ministry have all been investigating.
“I’ve always said charges could also arise depending on the outcome of that (TSB) investigation, and our own investigation along with those by officials from Environment Canada and possibly DFO,” Mr. Penner said.
So far, CN has voluntarily paid about $180,000 to the B.C. government for recovery, response and administrative costs since the spill, Mr. Penner said.
“Some people have confused that with, ‘Oh, that’s all CN is going to have to pay,’ ” Mr. Penner said.
“Our direct costs of responding and then of coming up with a recovery plan is separate from the issue of will there possibly be charges and or fines.”
Mr. Penner said the spill suffocated most of the fish that were in the river’s main channel for a period of 12 hours.
“The fish actually died from a lack of oxygen,” he said.
But some fish that were in the river’s back channels and pools survived the spill, Mr. Penner said.
“We thought all fish had died at first that were in that river, but it turns out fish were luckily in some side channels and things, and then they came back into the main channel. If they did after 12 hours, they were fine,” he said.
Last April, Mr. Penner said it will take at least 10 years for fish stocks in the Cheakamus River to recover from the spill.