Photo: flickr.comBien que du diesel trouvé dans un ruisseau près de Pickering, en Ontario, ait apparu après un accident de train du CN, la compagnie refusait d'abord d'accepter qu'il y a un lien entre l'accident et la découverte de diesel dans le ruisseau Krosno. La municipalité de Pickering a donc dû engager une équipe de décontamination et se résignait à devoir probablement payer la note du nettoyage. Durant la séance du conseil municipal d'avril, le Maire de la ville de Pickering a dévoilé qu'il a rencontré des personnages du CN qui lui ont assuré que s'il s'avérait que CN était responsable de la contamination du ruisseau, la compagnie payerait les dépenses raisonnables du nettoyage.
La contamination commence au début du ruisseau qui a sa source à l'est de la station de train de banlieu à Pickering, se déverse dans le ruisseau Krono Creek, pour ensuite se déverser dans Frenchman's Bay, dans le lac Ontario.
Çà ne prend pas beaucoup de diesel pour contaminer un cours d'eau, et pour causer la mort de poissons, d'animaux et d'insectes. Quelques plantes survivront, d'après le coordinateur du site de nettoyage.
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"Mysterious diesel leak into Pickering creek costs taxpayers
No one is accepting responsibility for a diesel spill that's costing Pickering taxpayers thousands of dollars while damaging a creek that leads to Frenchman's Bay. A hazmat crew hired by the City has been hard at work since April 3, cleaning up a diesel spill that continues to spew into a creek that begins east of the Pickering GO station and runs into Krosno Creek before it finally meets Frenchman's Bay.
Pickering officials immediately looked to the CN trail derailment of March 30, when three locomotives and nine freight cars jumped the tracks just west of the Pickering GO station, as a possible source of the spill. CN spokesman Frank Binder confirmed 40 litres of diesel fuel did leak from one of the locomotives as a result of the derailment, but said CN's investigation shows the creek situation has nothing to do with last Tuesday's situation. Although the hazmat crew contracted out by the City, DirectLine Environment Corp., continues to soak up the diesel by using berms running from the beginning of the creek all the way down to Frenchman's Bay, damage has already been done, said site coordinator Shane Dickson. "Some of it did escape into the lake," he said.
Mr. Dickson says it only takes a small amount of diesel to pollute a body of water. He also claims he saw diesel fuel in six of the catch basins on what he believes was CN property when DirectLine was helping with the derailment clean-up. He noted the timeliness was strangely coincidental. "It seems a very odd coincidence that a train derailed just last week and now we're here working on this," he said, adding he didn't want to point fingers.
Mr. Binder denied the claim, and said CN's environmental team, along with an independent environmental firm, checked all six catch basins a number of times and found no diesel originally. However, on Wednesday morning, diesel fuel was found in one catch basin on the boundary of CN and GO Transit property by CN's environmental team.
Mr. Dickson hopes to get the creek cleaned up soon. "It's not good for any of the wildlife," he said. "It will kill the fish. It will kill the wildlife, and insect life," adding it's possible plants will survive.
Since no one's taking the fall, Pickering is footing the bill for the clean-up, something the City only budgets $25,000 for per year, which this clean-up could easily reach."
Excerpts from article written by Kristen Calis published here: http://newsdurhamregion.com/news/article/151727
The Mayor was later able to meet with CN authorities and was assured that if it is proven that CN is responsible for the contamination of the creek, "The Canadian National Rail Company is willing to reimburse all reasonable costs of the derailment that occurred in Pickering a couple of weeks ago": http://www.newsdurhamregion.com/news/article/152573
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