Cheakamus River Spill - August 5, 2005

Early today, Aug 5th, CN Rail had a train derailment in the Cheakamus River Canyon near Chance Creek which resulted in 4 rail cars of Caustic Soda to enter the Cheakamus River. From reports I have heard but not verified, 151 000 litrers of Caustic Soda leaked from the cars and into the river. Fish kill is very large. I was informed of this around 1200 hrs and as I was in the field, I could not get there until 1300 hrs. There is much evidence of lots of dead and burnt juveniles in the river margins in the North Vancouver Outdoor School area of the river. Dead fish species I identified in a short 15 minute walk were steelhead, coho, chinook, char, sculpins and lampreys. I also found a adult chinook (20+ lbs.) dead as well. Karl Halverson of the NVOS property also found dead Pink and Steelhead ( rainbow trout ) adults as well as numerous juveniles. He also took PH readings in the river and it went higher than 8 on his portable tester. That is very toxic. Many of the juveniles I observed were severely stressed and several had visible burn marks on them. Remember that this is about 15+ km downstream from where the spill happened. I suspect it's much worse farther upstream.

Please distribute this to who ever you feel need to see this. We can't let anyone put a spin on this suggesting that the damage is only minimal. It's not.! There are I'm sure thousands of dead fish and thousands more injured to the extent that they might as well be dead. This is a major blow to this river. Definitely the last thing the chinook, pinks and steelhead needed. I will update as more info becomes available.

Brian Klassen - Saturday, August 06, 2005

By now I am sure all of you have heard of the spill of Caustic Soda 51,000l of 73% conc Sodium Hydroxide) to the Cheakamus.

First of all I can not understate the effect this has had on fish populations on the Cheakamus and lower Squamish.

ph readings taken today during the height of contamination were 14+ if there is such a thing. ph is back down to 7 as of mid afternoon.

Today a number of people spent a very hot afternoon collecting more dead fish than I care to think about (yes I am a little emotional about this).

I am trying not to be over dramatic but I would say a very high percentage of fish in the mainstem Cheakamus and lower Squamish are dead. The juvenile steelhead have most likely taken the hardest hit as three year classes (2003, 2004 and 2005) juveniles were affected, this is not to underestimate the effect on other species i.e. pink and chinook adults who are currently in river to spawn). For example in a 105m stretch of river edge chinook and pink adults, rainbow adults, dollyvarden adults, steelhead and rainbow juveniles, coho juveniles, chinook juveniles, sculpins (better known as bullheads) and lamprey (adults and juvenile) the later two species only die when things are pretty tough in my experience.

Anyhow now that I have given vent to my feelings, here's how you can help. Under the direction of Provincial fisheries biologists we would like to collect as many of the dead fish as we can. We will be processing these fish at Tenderfoot Hatchery and will be meeting at 8:30 Saturday or come by later if you wish as someone will be there to direct you all day, so please come and give us a hand. Bring waders and rubber gloves.

Thanks
Caroline

Hi

Further to last night's e-mail here are few of the many photos I took yesterday. As you can see in the picture GuagePool 9 the fish were trying to escape the water, while photo Gauge Pool 23 is one dipnet full of fish taken from the bottom approx. 8m offshore. Other sites from near the canyon to below the confluence with the Squamish were also surveyed yesterday with similar results.

I just want to reiterate that this disaster should not be diminished, the repercussions for the ecology of the lower Cheakamus are huge. As I stated last night a high percentage (maybe 90+%) of all the species of fish in the Cheakamus are dead and the three fish I saw alive yesterday did not look happy, not to mention the effect on the invertebrates which we hope to assess today. Any help in making sure wide public awareness of this event is realized will ensure advocacy as we try to recover this precious watershed.

I will try to keep everyone up to date on what is happening as we assess.

Caroline Melville