As Burnaby council officially opposed a coal expansion at Fraser Surrey Docks on Monday night, it also expressed alarm about the coal train spill over the weekend.
City council directed staff to come back with a report detailing what happened on Jan. 11, when three rail cars spilt coal into a nearby creek feeding into Burnaby Lake. The report will also include recommendations on what the city can do to raise awareness around the issue.
“Everyone is a Lac-Mégantic waiting to happen,” Mayor Derek Corrigan said. “I think that we need better from our senior governments, we need better from the feds and province in looking after the interest of local citizens.”
Council also asked staff to keep an eye on the rail spill cleanup and investigation from this point on.
“What made me lose sleep over the weekend is the fact that we’re never told what kind of substances are coming through our community,” Corrigan said. “What makes me stay awake is worrying about those RCMP officers that are going to be first on the scene and those firefighters … dealing with a substance they know nothing about, but having to be there to protect public interest.”
Corrigan and city councillors also had questions about the role local beavers possibly played in the spill.
“I’m really taken aback that the railway could be surprised by the fact there might be beavers somewhere close to the railway … given that we do have them on our nickels. I don’t know, it’s hard to miss a national symbol,” Corrigan added. “Before we start expounding on what the possible causes were, I would like to have a bit more information because I remain suspicious.”
Coun. Dan Johnston said in the era of industry deregulation, the safe transportation of goods is severely lacking.
Coun. Nick Volkow said the coal itself isn’t the problem, it’s the fine shards now floating in the lake, affecting the fish adversely.
“I thought, wait a minute … the City of Burnaby and the province of British Columbia just expended 22 million bucks to drain and clean that lake, and we just had a railroad come along and dump six carloads of coal into that lake,” Volkow said. “Now who’s going to clean that up?”
Coun. Sav Dhaliwal, who lives close to where the spill occurred, said the city avoided a disaster over the weekend and was lucky there was no loss of life.
