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"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, 51 000 litres 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 severly stressed and several had visable 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. Definetly the last thing the chinook, pinks and steelhead needed. I will update as more info becomes available."
Brian Klassen
(604) 898 - 3266
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[This message has been edited by River Rat (edited 07 August 2005).]