Cheakamus River Spill
As reported by the Nanaimo Daily News, August 8, 2005
As reported by the Nanaimo Daily News, August 8, 2005
Kim Thompson
For CanWest News Service
August 8, 2005
Thousands of dead fish are washing up on the shores of the Cheakamus River after 41,000 litres of a toxic chemical spilled into the water when a CN train derailed early Friday morning.
"I have seen every species that lives in the river dead. I just walked past a pile of more than 1,000 severely acid burned fish," said Brian Klassen, a Squamish resident. "We are picking up a lot of dead fish along the river banks and it looks like they were actually trying to get out of the water."
Nine cars from a 144-car train plunged into the Cheakamus River -- 30 kilometres north of Squamish -- en route to Prince George around 7:30 a.m. Most were empty lumber cars but one was a tanker carrying caustic soda or sodium hydroxide, a corrosive material used in pulp mill manufacturing.
Commonly known as lye, the substance spiked the river's pH levels.