Train derailments prompt calls for pipelines
‘No choice’ but to look at safer method to transport oil, Usborne reeve says
GUERNSEY The reeve of a Saskatchewan municipality where two fiery train derailments have occurred in less than two months says it’s time for the federal government to look more seriously at pipelines to move oil.
Jack Gibney, reeve of the Rural Municipality of Usborne, said “oil is going to move one way or another … We have no choice.”
A Canadian Pacific Railway freight train carrying crude jumped the tracks Thursday around 6:15 a.m., just outside the Hamlet of Guernsey, about 115 kilometres southeast of Saskatoon.
The Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency said 31 of the train’s 104 cars derailed and a dozen caught fire, sending flames and thick, black smoke into the air.
Trains carrying oil move through Guernsey every hour, said Gibney, who added the track is busier than it’s ever been.
“We call it our Canadian pipeline here going by,” he said.
Tom Lukiwski, the member of Parliament for the area, said he believes pipelines are the safest way to transport crude oil and bitumen.
“This, I hope, will be a reminder to the government that they have to take a very hard and long look at increasing our pipeline capacity in this country,” Lukiwski said.
Approximately 85 residents who were ordered to leave the community on Thursday were told they could return late Friday afternoon.
Prior to being told they could go home, residents gathered in nearby Lanigan on Friday and met with CP officials. Gibney said while people appreciate CP’S efforts, many are still concerned about rail safety and the transportation of oil. The derailment was roughly 10 kilometres from where a train carrying crude derailed and burned along Highway 16 on Dec. 9, 2019. In that incident, 33 oil tank cars and one hopper car left the tracks and 1.5 million litres of oil leaked.
Gibney on Thursday said the second similar incident in two months left him puzzled over derailments “happening left and right.”
Hours after the derailment, the federal government ordered lower speed limits for all trains carrying large amounts of dangerous goods.
Dangerous goods include crude oil that is diluted with condensate, as well as gasoline, diesel, chemicals and some fertilizers, said John Zahary, chief executive of Altex Energy, which operates terminals that load undiluted crude. The order will have an effect through the transportation system as rail workers and locomotives are tied up on longer trips, Zahary said.
“There is a finite number of people, of engineers driving the trains, a finite number of locomotives. So there is a direct impact on the dangerous goods, and maybe an indirect impact on everything else,” he said.
Alberta and Saskatchewan have been pushing for pipelines as a better option than rail. Earlier this week, Premier Scott Moe said the idea of a pipeline to Churchill, Man., was worth exploring. Opponents have said the boggy tundra and muskeg in northern Manitoba would make any pipeline susceptible to spills.
The fire was still burning Friday, preventing the Transportation Safety Board’s investigators from getting to the wreckage.
According to CP, its emergency response team and contractors were working with local fire officials. An investigation into the cause of the derailment is continuing, CP Rail said. There were no injuries or fatalities.
“Crews are working diligently to ensure the area is cleaned up and restored,” the company said.
“CP will work closely with the adjacent landowners in this regard.”