User:Cans4302/Cheakamus River derailment

The Cheakamus River derailment occurred on August 5, 2005, when nine cars that were from a Canadian National Railway freight train derailed and crashed into the Cheakamus River in British Columbia. The cars contained approximately 40,000 litres of caustic soda (sodium hydroxide), which entered the river, killing more than 500,000 fish from 10 different species, including chinook salmon, coho salmon, pink salmon, and rainbow trout, both freshwater and ocean-dwelling. Juvenile rainbow trout were the most affected at a mortality rate of 90% and it was also estimated that the adult chinook salmon mortality rate reached 50%.

On November 5, 2005, federal transport minister, Jean Lapierre, ordered Canadian National to limit the number of cars of its conventional trains travelling in the area of the derailment between Squamish and Clinton to 80 cars, as a result of the derailment; the train involved had 144 cars. In 2007, an investigation report from the Transportation Safety Board of Canada revealed safety issues regarding operation of the train, such as not having the safest technology and improper training of the crew's response to the various safety alarms. Additionally, they reported that the track had no contributing factors to the accident. It was revealed that the train was going uphill when nine cars fell from a bridge into the Cheakamus River. Transport Canada limited horsepower and tonnage after the accident and CN faced federal and provincial charges. In 2006, it was estimated that it would take approximately a decade for the river to completely recover from the derailment. Attempts at restoration began by trying to introduce 20,000 juvenile steelhead salmon that would have been hatchery raised from 40 wild adult steelhead salmon. In 2010, CN Rail pleaded guilty to one federal charge under the Federal Fisheries Act and had to pay $350,000 towards conservation efforts and an additional $400,000 as a penalty for pleading guilty to the charge.

The derailment cost CN at least $7 million.