(The following story by Kerry Diotte appeared on the Edmonton Sun website on May 26, 2009.)
EDMONTON It's the end of the line for court actions in the wake of an August 2005 train derailment that dumped nearly 800,000 litres of oil and a chemical into Lake Wabamun.
CN agreed in court yesterday to pay $1.4 million in fines related to provincial and federal charges over the Aug. 3, 2005 spill into the lake, 65 km west of Edmonton.
"This is sending the message that the company clearly accepted the fact there was some culpability on (its) part," said Environment Minister Rob Renner.
"Clearly from our perspective, the guilty plea shows that ... the investigation that took place was done in the appropriate way and the company chose to plead rather than fight it in court," Renner said yesterday after the matter was dealt with in a Stony Plain court.
One of the charges related to failing to take action to quickly contain the spill. Other charges involved harming fish and migratory birds.
The Wabamun spill involved 700,000 litres of bunker oil and 88,000 litres of toxic wood preservative from 43 rail cars.
It killed hundreds of birds and fish, polluted beaches and shoreline and had permanent residents and cottagers seething. The spill was blamed on a defective rail that broke under the weight of the train.
The fine will benefit a variety of water and fish conservation projects, said a provincial Environment Ministry spokesman. The biggest beneficiary will be the Edmonton Wildlife Rehabilitation Society, which will receive $600,000.
"These settlements are focused on the future and on what's best for the environment," said CN president and chief executive officer Hunter Harrison.
"CN will continue to strengthen emergency response procedures, while maintaining its commitment to do everything in its power to prevent accidents from occurring."
Wabamun village administrator Leagh Randle said there's disappointment the lake itself isn't apparently going to benefit in any significant way from the fines.
"We had some discussions early on that if there was a fine option we'd like to see it spent on a park or boat launches or fishery studies or something to enhance it here on Lake Wabamun," said Randle, noting that after the spill, fishing is now limited to catch and release.
CN and its insurers have spent more than $132 million following the spill for cleanup and to compensate people impacted by it, said a company spokesman.
That includes a $10-million settlement with the 1,700-member Paul First Nation, which is located on the east side of the lake.
Both the province and CN were criticized for being slow to react to the spill.
Today, testing shows no traces of oil in Lake Wabamun water, although there are tarballs on the lake floor that pose no risk to humans or wildlife, say CN officials.
CN also yesterday pleaded guilty to charges after an Aug. 5, 2005 derailment and chemical spill into the Cheakamus River near Squamish, B.C.
The caustic sodium hydroxide spill killed hundreds of thousands of salmon, trout and char in the river. CN will pay $400,000 in fines related to that incident.
