Six cars on a southbound Canadian National train went off the tracks near the Mitsue Industrial Park on Dec. 2. The derailment shut the track down for over 13 hours, and spilled an amount of liquid calcium chloride.
According to CN spokesman Kevin Franchuk, five of the six derailed cars contained the calcium chloride – a locally produced compound often used as a road salt or for dust control. The sixth car carried lumber.
“No environmental issues are expected,” Franchuk said on Dec. 3. “The product is being removed by CN Environment and contract cleaning crews.”
Franchuk said the rail line was re-opened at around 8:00 a.m. on Wednesday. The derailment occurred at 4:40 p.m. the previous day, about a kilometre east of where the tracks cross the East Mitsue road, 20 km east of Slave Lake.
Clean-up crews used a nearby Penn West wellsite as a marshalling area, which was only a couple hundred metres from the derailment and spill site. Trackhoes were still working on the clean-up at about 9:15 a.m. on Dec. 3, and vacuum trucks were also evident on site.
As for the cause of the derailment, Franchuk said it is under investigation. However, Alberta Environment spokesperson Cara Van Marck told The Leader that it was caused by “a section of broken track.”
Van Marck said two of the five cars leaked an undetermined amount of product. She said an Alberta Environment agent was on the site and was satisfied CN had responded appropriately. The free product had been vacuumed up, she said, and the contaminated soil would be removed for treatment at some later date. It covers about 50 square metres of surface area, she said.
Calcium chloride is a salt that is solid at room temperature. It has the property of attracting moisture from its surroundings, which causes it to dissolve – a process that produces quite a lot of heat, which aids in melting ice. According to Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia, calcium chloride is “relatively harmless to plants and soil.”

Copyright © 2000 The Lakeside Leader. All Rights Reserved.
No part may be reproduced without written permission.

View our Privacy Statement.
Send website suggestions to the Webmaster