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Saturday, Aug 06, 2005

CN agrees to pay outside experts to represent residents at Alta. oil spill

WABAMUN, Alta. (CP) - Canadian National will pay so that residents can hire outside experts to assist them in their campaign to have the railway clean up a devastating oil spill from this week's train derailment.
Property owners around Lake Wabamun asked the company Saturday to foot the bill for experts to represent them because many of the area's summer residents must leave and can't attend daily briefings with those overseeing the cleanup.

"I think we need some legal advice and some environmental advice," cabin owner Don Goss said.

"They'll be there on our behalf doing what we've been doing for the last several days, meeting with CN officials, getting updates and holding their feet to the fire."

CN spokesman Jim Feeny said the company agreed to the idea but still has to work out a budget. "We've said we're fine with the concept," he said.

"They can't be here around the clock doing this kind of thing."

The train derailed Wednesday when 43 of 140 cars left the tracks. Some of the cars contained bunker fuel oil, used in liquid asphalt and to power barges and ships. Fifteen of those cars, as well as a car full of lubricating oil, began to leak into the lake, about 65 kilometres west of Edmonton.

Goss said crews were working on his beach but the oil returned with the shifting winds. "It looked as bad as it looked shortly after the spill."

He wants efforts focused on containing what's in the water before the shore is cleaned up and oil spreads further.

On Friday, angry residents who felt ignored by CN blocked the train track through Wabamun to get some answers and some action.

"In reality it's still a bleak, bad news story, but we're making progress," Goss said.

Saturday was another day of meetings and briefings between the company and people who live and spend summer holidays around the Lake Wabamun.

Dozens showed up to a noon hour meeting that turned emotional as people who'd arrived at their cabins for the first time since the derailment saw firsthand the effects of the spill.

"There's still emotion and understandably so, and people are still very, very critical," Feeny said.

He said 110 people are on the lake and shoreline doing cleanup work. The company had run out of absorbent booms to contain the spill, but more arrived Saturday or were on the way.

"We essentially drained Western Canada of this kind of boom," he said.

The Sundance power plant on the south shore of the lake shut down its water intake when winds shifted the oil slick close to the plant, TransAlta spokesman Ralph Leriger said.

The plant provides roughly one-quarter of the province's electricity, and is the largest of its kind in Western Canada.

When company officials saw the slick was headed their way Friday, they began building a dam across the canal that allows lake water into the plant, where it's used to replace water evaporated from boilers, Leriger said.

Another TransAlta station, the Wabamun plant, was shut down after the derailment.

On Friday the province issued an environmental protection order forcing CN to do whatever is necessary to clean up the spill. The company must also report progress to the province and the public. Failure to comply could result in fines or other penalties.

Alberta Environment spokesman Brad Ledig said the line of absorbent booms protecting the east end of the lake was being reinforced with a second line. The plan was to place booms to protect two other areas - the south side where the Sundance power plant sits, and along the west side of the lake.

"The cleanup has been improving each day, but there's obviously still a lot of work to do and it's going to be a very long process," Ledig said. "Alberta Environment is pleased to see that efforts have been stepped up."

The company set up a new command centre at the main pier along the lake in the village of Wabamun, and is promising information bulletins to the public every day at noon.

Meetings with a core group of community representatives have swelled over the past two days as other concerned residents come to ask questions.

The lake has been closed to all swimming and boating in fear of spreading the slick to areas that haven't been contaminated.

Feeny said one of the company's priorities after meeting with the community Saturday is to clear the damaged rail cars from the site to prevent further leaking of oil.

© The Canadian Press, 2005