A Train Full of Flammable Chemicals Quietly Derailed in Sarnia Last Month

All photos via Wilson Plain.
The derailing of four tank cars loaded with a flammable, explosive oil product, and the lack of safety measures when they were put back, has left some residents of the Aamjiwnaang First Nation near Sarnia wondering if their safety is being properly guarded. The native lands are in the midst of the cluster of more than 60 oil and chemical industries known as “Canada’s Chemical Valley”—an area that VICE released a documentary on last year.

The four cars, part of a nine-car train, came off the tracks on a short rail spur leading from Suncor’s Sarnia refinery May 2 while travelling at low speed, but stayed “upright and intact,” confirmed Suncor spokesperson Nicole Fisher. The cars were fully loaded with toluene, a refinery product being sent to a company called Parachem in Montreal. Toluene is a natural part of petroleum, and is a flammable and explosive liquid with a sweet, pungent odour that evaporates quickly in air, according to information from Health Canada.

According to Nicole Fisher, the cars were repaired, inspected, and returned for regular operations. Suncor and the train operator, CSX Transportation, will make a plan to avoid similar problems in the future, she said.

The incident was first documented by Aamjiwnaang resident Wilson Plain, who was alerted to some peculiar events near the First Nations' cemetery when his niece noticed workers with flashlights congregating around a train with flashlights during the night. The next day he decided to take photos of the scene as no emergency vehicles showed up. “Somebody had to record this. No local media showed up," he told VICE. “It seemed that no one was interested and no one cared."

Plain was surprised again when workers using special equipment to re-rail the cars proceeded to shunt the cars across a street where local traffic, including school buses, was passing. No one was controlling the traffic. “The safety of our kids should be the number one thing,” he said. Plain spoke to the school bus company and confirmed there was no traffic control in place. He says the company told him that on that day bus drivers noticed what was going on and were careful crossing the tracks.

Sarnia’s Fire Chief didn’t know of the incident until days later. While the derailment was a minor problem, akin to “a flat tire by the side of the road,” Chief John Kingyens was still upset with Suncor and CSX that his department found out only when Aamjiwnaang residents called to ask what was going on. Similar incidents happen in Sarnia’s busy rail yard several times each year, Kingyens told VICE, but the lack of notification was “definitely a concern,” according to Sarnia’s emergency planner Cal Gardner. “They need to contact 911,” he said. While the companies may consider the incident to be minor, the public “might think differently,” he added.

Local officials weren’t told about the matter because there was no “public impact,” according to CSX spokesperson Carla Groleau.

Another worry for Plain is the gouging of the ground caused by the machinery used to put the rail cars back, since the area is laced with a network of underground pipelines carrying hydrocarbons.  One local pipeline, owned by the Sun-Canadian company, ruptured last September, spilling up to 35,000 litres of diesel fuel into the St. Clair River and closed a major intersection in Sarnia for weeks.

With a major rail yard on the south edge of the city and numerous spur lines to local industries, Sarnia’s level of emergency readiness is ahead of most Canadian cities, Gardner boasts, but cautions that the city also has more hazardous cargo than many cities. The Sarnia fire department has a large stock of fire-fighting foam for chemical or electrical fires, a mutual aid pact with Port Huron, Michigan, just across the Blue Water Bridge, and also has the help of separate fire departments run by several chemical companies.

The new federal rules being launched since the Lac-Mégantic disaster last year will be help, but not significantly"He says the company told him that on that day bus drivers noticed what was going on and were careful crossing the tracks.", he says. While it’s good to be informed of what is passing through Sarnia, emergency services really need to be prepared “for anything,” he says.

The incident was reported in a “timely way” to the federal Transportation Safety Board, said Board spokesperson Chris Krepski from Ottawa and posed no danger as the train was travelling at a very slow speed. The T.S.B. report lists the cause as “irregular track alignment.”