What hazardous goods are coming through Burnaby via rail?
The short answer: You're not allowed to know.
City council has been trying to get information on this without any luck. The fire chief, however, did find out the categories of hazardous goods, which include flammables, explosives, infectious substances and radioactive materials.
We're not trying to fearmonger here, but that's pretty scary stuff considering the recent train derailment in Burnaby. Silver Creek connects to Burnaby Lake, which drains into the Brunette River. The area is sensitive habitat for spawning salmon and the endangered Western painted turtle, and the lower parts of the Brunette are habitat for the Nooksack dace, a nearly extinct prehistoric minnow.
If those three cars that tipped over, spilling coal into Silver Creek, had been full of something more toxic, the accident could have easily killed everything in the waterway and had serious impacts on human health.
Why can't we know what's coming through the city? The information is a security risk and could fall into the wrong hands, we're told.
Our office is not far from the Cariboo railway crossing, and we've seen rail cars labelled as carrying sodium hydroxide, hydrochloric acid and chlorine.
Sodium hydroxide is basically lye, and it can burn through flesh. So can hydrochloric acid, which is highly corrosive. Chlorine is also toxic and is used in bleach and pesticides. A major spill of any of these three substances could be devastating.
As the fire chief put it, emergency crews can't properly prepare if they don't know what they are dealing with. We appreciate security concerns, but one would think the risk of a spill is much higher and more likely than a terrorist attack targeting trains in Burnaby. And, frankly, if we can read the printing on the side of a railcar, surely a terrorist can as well.
