Officials and environmental groups across the corridor say they're pleased with federal and provincial government decisions to charge CN Rail for the 2005 derailment leading to 40,000 litres of caustic soda being dumped into the Cheakamus River.
"We're happy that something's being done on those levels," said Acting Mayor Jeff McKenzie.
"They have an opportunity to show harm done where we didn't and we were a little disappointed as a council."
Squamish council decided not to pursue a suit against CN after the municipality's lawyers determined there was no way to prove harm was done to the District of Squamish or its people, said McKenzie.
"We had major discussions on it because a couple of councilors were really vocal about suing them - Mr. Gardner and Ms. Heintzman," he said.
"And it's just that our lawyers said there's no proven harm for our community directly because the spilled happened outside - although it did sweep through our community."
John Buchanan of the Cheakamus Ecosystem Restoration Stakeholder Team, a public advisory group of individuals with local knowledge, said he's glad CN will have to answer for the damage caused by the spill.
"It's important that they are held accountable for this," he said.
After a two-year investigation, CN Rail has been charged with five offences stemming from the Cheakamus Canyon derailment.B.C. Environment Minister Barry Penner announced the charges - two under the federal Fisheries Act and three under the B.C. Environmental Management Act - on Friday (Aug. 3), one day short of the two-year anniversary of the accident.
"That derailment had negative consequences for the wildlife and the fish along the river and these charges are a reflection of that," said Penner.
The two federal charges are over the destruction of half-a-million fish when the derailment dumped caustic soda in the Cheakamus River. CN could be fined up to $300,000 for each of those offenses.
"All of those [provincial] charges separately carry a fine of up to $1 million, so potentially and theoretically, if convicted on all three counts, you could be looking at fines up to $3 million," announced Penner.
Whistler Mayor Ken Melamed applauded the minister for laying the charges and added he hoped Penner "will follow through and review the operating and safety terms so that we can take measures to avoid these types of recurring incidents."
"It seems to many observers it seems that CN sees these problems as a cost of doing business rather than as serious threats to safety and the environment," said Melamed.
The charges, which were laid following a two-year investigation by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and the B.C. Ministry of the Environment, come one month after the release of the Transportation Safety Board's (TSB) report into the derailment.
The investigation found the derailment was caused after two remote locomotives went off-line. The train's crew was unaware of the failure due to an ineffective alarm system. When the engineer tried to add more power to the front engines to compensate for the two inoperable locomotives as the train travelled through the Cheakamus Canyon, the middle of the 144-car train came off its tracks.
CN's first scheduled appearance before B.C. Provincial Court to answer to the charges is on October.
Friday was the last day charges could be laid, as the statute of limitations ran out. It was also the last day civil action could be taken against CN. Although the Squamish Nation filed a cause of action earlier this year, the District of Squamish had not filed a claim in time for the deadline.
