VANCOUVER -- The toxic chemical spill from a derailed Canadian National tank car into the swift flowing Cheakamus River has had a devastating effect on the river's struggling steelhead population, area residents said yesterday.

Brian Klassen, a member of the South Coast Steelhead Coalition, estimated that 90 to 95 per cent of fish in the river were fatally poisoned by the 51,000 litres of caustic soda that poured into the river early Friday morning.

"It's really, really bad," said Mr. Klassen, who lives in nearby Brackendale, about 20 kilometres south of the spill site, halfway between Squamish and the Whistler ski resort. "Steelhead seems to be hit particularly hard. The Cheakamus is the second-most-important steelhead river in southern B.C., so this is just another kick in the teeth for a stock that is already in trouble.

"This might be enough to put them over the edge," he worried.

Another resident, who did not want to be identified, declared, angrily: "Downstream from where the spill happened, the river is dead. You can't find any fish. Basically, it's murder."

Many residents close to the river are also fuming that they did not learn of the chemical spill until long after it happened.

Nicola Kozakiewicz, who lives about 150 metres from the river and gets water from a nearby well, said she did not hear of the spill until her daughter phoned about it from Toronto around 6 o'clock Friday evening. That was nearly 12 hours after the derailment occurred.

"Apparently it was on CBC and Mountain FM, but we're rural here. The reception is poor and we don't always have the radio on," Ms. Kozakiewicz said.

"It took 13 hours for someone to physically let us know that there was a toxic spill in our river."

She and others living in the area said they had heard of dogs playing in the river during the day, and children swimming in the Squamish River, where the Cheakamus empties.

Evan Phillips, director of operations for Canadian Outback Adventure, which runs rafting expeditions down the Cheakamus, said the company cancelled all river activities on its own late Friday morning.

No one officially notified them of the spill, said Mr. Phillips, noting the potential damage to the region's reputation for recreational tourism.

"To have such a time lapse on a major chemical spill into our water system, at the height of our tourist season, raises grave concerns," he said.

"There's also the disbelief and sheer horror at the long-term environmental impacts. We are a rafting company and we rely heavily on this wilderness to be sustained and healthy.

"When we hear about these disasters, and it is a disaster, it affects us in profound ways," Mr. Phillips said.

When he went to take a look, he said, the river was "frothing like a rabid dog. It was cloudy, murky, foamy. And there were dead fish floating in the water. That's when I decided to pull the pin, for the safety of our customers."

Mr. Klassen, of the steelhead coalition, said he found lots of dead fish from many species in a postspill tour of the riverbank.

"There was the odd one here and there, but when we started rolling over some of the rocks on the beach, you'd find a lot more directly underneath," he recounted. "It was like the fish were trying to get out of the water."

Among the carcasses were sculpins and lamprey eels, which feed on the bottom of the river. "It takes a lot to kill them, so when they start dying, you know you've got problems," Mr. Klassen said.

This is a brood year for steelhead, he said, so as many as 400 spawners may have been in the river when the toxic chemicals went rushing by.

"So if you lose about 90 to 95 per cent of the fish that came out of the gravel, it's going to be devastating to the brood year."

An official advisory from local health officials was not issued until Friday afternoon, advising residents not to drink water from the Cheakamus or use water from wells within 100 metres of the river.

Toxicity levels in the river have since returned to normal, Lance Sundquist, incident commander for the B.C. Environment Ministry, said yesterday.

Both Mr. Sundquist and officials from CN Rail agreed that a review of how residents were notified of the spill is necessary.

"We understand that some residents have concerns, and we will be very much discussing those," CN spokesman Graham Dallas said.

But Mr. Dallas rejected speculation the derailment may have been caused by CN running too long a train through the spectacular Cheakamus canyon.

Some residents quoted former employees of BC Rail, the Crown corporation that used to operate the railway, who said they almost never ran trains longer than 90 cars along that route.

The CN trail had 144 cars, 141 of which were empty.

"Our operating practice throughout North America is consistent," Mr. Dallas said. "It is within industry standards. The length of train was not a factor in this."

The CN track reopened to freight traffic late Saturday.

Caustic soda, or sodium hydroxide, is a highly corrosive liquid used in the pulp-and-paper industry.

© The Globe and Mail 2005