A New Westminster resident who has a deep interest in railway safety says a Port Metro fire last week underlines her concerns.
Lene Tonnisen was cycling in Vancouver last Wednesday, when she smelled some of the chemicals that were burning at the container yard. She’s worried about the threat that trains containing hazardous materials pose when they’re stationed near her Quayside home.
“It should not be stored here, even for a few hours,” she said. “Get off your duff – do what is right, do what is safe. Money usually wins out over safety.”
Rail safety is an issue near and dear to Tonnisen’s heart, as she was a passenger in a vehicle that crashed with a train when she was 18. While the car’s driver died in the crash, Tonnisen was in a coma for 10 days and suffered a brain injury and a shattered cheekbone and nose.
Today, Tonnisen continues to monitor the hazardous goods passing through her neighbourhood.
“I am taking pictures, I am documenting it,” she said. “I want to document it so they know I know what is going through our yards.”
Quayside residents have expressed concerns about trains carrying hazardous goods being parked at the rail yard for extended periods of time – concerns that were renewed when a container at the Vancouver port containing a hazardous organic compound (trichloroisocyanuric acid) caught on fire and sent toxic fumes into the air. The terminal in Vancouver was shut down, some areas were evacuated and people as far away as Burnaby smelled the burning chemical.
Mayor Jonathan Cote has reached out to MP Peter Julian and would like to discuss the matter with him.
“Certainly the incident in Vancouver last week has heightened some awareness to some of the issues regarding some of these hazardous materials, which we do know get transported through our region. The residents at Quayside have raised the issue,” he told the Record. “Unfortunately it is outside the city’s jurisdiction, but I’m hoping to have a conversation with our Member of Parliament and see what opportunities might exist on a federal level.”
Quayside resident Brian Allen believes the incident should be the “second wakeup” call for local politicians about the need to address the storage of hazardous, toxic and explosive goods in an heavily populated residential area.
“The one in Lac Mégantic was one,” he said of the 2013 rail disaster in Quebec that left more than 40 people dead and destroyed part of the town’s downtown.
Allen would like Burnaby-New Westminster MP Peter Julian to raise the issue with the NDP and push for changes to federal legislation.
“What I would like is a very clear definition in the hazardous goods act that companies cannot store, stage or otherwise leave stationary explosive, hazardous, flammable or toxic substance within 300 metres of residential area,” he told the Record.
Allen has long believed the rail yard in Port Coquitlam is a better spot for this type of rail activity to be occurring, as it away from residential buildings.
“Something can always be done. If you can put men on the moon, you can do anything,” he said. “It’s the fact that the rail companies do not want to change any of their systems or processes, and they don’t want to give up any of their rights. They will only do something if it is for their benefit.”
Allen would like the City of New Westminster to join Julian in pressing for changes to the hazardous goods laws. He believes railways will only act on residents’ concerns if forced by the federal government.
“In past dealing with rail companies it became very evident to me that it’s a lot of delay. At the end of the day they place the burden of responsibility on a complainant to prove that there’s an issue or a problem. At the end of the day it’s far easier and more direct just to have the legislation in place,” he said. “Clear and simple, this kind of stuff shouldn’t be stored in close proximity to residences.
Tonnisen is on board with the idea of prohibiting the storage of hazardous goods at the rail yard on the waterfront. After another resident raised the concern at a community meeting last year, she’s been photographing trains carrying hazardous goods, such as sulphuric acid and petroleum gas, at the yard near her home.
“Why would they store it 10 metres from thousands of people?” she asked. “It’s a safety thing.”
While chemicals are needed by industry and are regularly transported through communities by train and truck, Allen thinks anything that contains hazardous, explosive, flammable or toxic substances that could be dangerous to humans shouldn’t be staged, stored or left sitting in a rail yard near residences.
“Those containers in the Port of Vancouver were stationary. They weren’t even moving. What it says to me, … is that the rules and laws surrounding the regulation of rail companies are antiquated and need to be changed to be brought into modern times.”
