Company pledges $81,000 more for fish stocks
Sylvie Paillard
spaillard@squamishchief.com
More than 100 angry Sea to Sky residents attended a panel discussion Wednesday (Sept. 14) demanding answers about the Aug. 5 CN Rail derailment that resulted in 40,000 litres of caustic soda being spilled in the Cheakamus River and untold numbers of fish being killed.
A panel of nine representatives from CN, the District of Squamish, the Squamish Lillooet Regional District, environment agencies and Vancouver Coastal Health answered questions submitted in advance, but the audience quickly lost patience with the format, resorting to voicing their concerns.
"Why weren't we told?" asked several members of the audience, referring to the delay of at least five hours before notification went out to the public.
Ministry of Environment Conservation Officer Lance Sundquist and Mayor Ian Sutherland repeated numerous times that the notification process was flawed and "mistakes were made" and unspecified efforts were being made to rectify the flaw. John Turner of the SLRD said a fan out list had been used to contact affected residents, but many of those present said they are on the fan out list and never received a call.
"I found out because my neighbour's horse stopped drinking the water," said one Paradise Valley resident. "But my kids, they would still be playing in the river."
Another resident who runs a river rafting company said his business wasn't notified until 8 p.m. the evening of the spill."I have clients who are still, in September, telling me they're concerned about being in the water that day," he said.
Numerous questions asked about compensation, one of which suggested CN should pay for all recovery costs.
"We don't know what will be the total cost of the spill," said CN spokesperson Graham Dallas. "Our goal is to get the river cleaned up and back into shape for the community and visitors."
Dallas said CN has a compensation line for people DOS Coun. Raj Kahlon asked Sutherland why the municipal and regional districts are not pursuing CN in court. Sutherland said the district researched the possibility of suing, but discovered they are not legally entitled to do so.
"The SLRD does have concerns about the Railway Act," he said. "We're continuing the dialogue, but the government currently does not have a big role to play in the revolution of CN."
The Squamish Nation does, however, have a right to litigate, said Squamish Nation Environmental Coordinator Randall Lewis. Lewis drew applause when he said that the band has a writ drawn up and will file a lawsuit if CN doesn't provide compensation.
"We can take anyone to task," he said, "and we will if we aren't accommodated."
Sutherland said that district members have joined steering committees to assess the environmental impact and assist in the river's recovery.
Members of the steering committee also include CN, Squamish First Nation, B.C. Ministry of Environment, Environment Canada, Fisheries and Oceans Canada and the District of Squamish.
Dr. Tom Watson, Vice President of Triton Environmental Consultants, hired by CN to assess the impact and oversee recovery of the river, raised the crowd's ire when he called the incident a "little blip." He said he could not state how many fish died in the spill aftermath, but "the river is not dead."
DFO and CN have agreed to work together on efforts to restore the river's salmon stocks. CN has agreed to contribute funds, totaling $81,000, for additional enhancement of chinook and pink salmon stocks, a DFO news release announced Tuesday (Sept. 13).
DFO staff will begin immediately to increase the number of salmon eggs normally collected from returning adult salmon in late summer and incubated in a hatchery to boost salmon survival rates. DFO facilities, such as the Tenderfoot Creek Hatchery near Squamish, will care for the eggs until they are ready to be released back into the Cheakamus River as smolts in the spring of 2006.
