Residents worry about oil in Wabamun Lake

Crews are still trying to determine how much fuel oil leaked into Wabamun Lake after 43 train cars derailed near the cottage area Wednesday.

Forty-three train cars derailed near Wabamun Wednesday. (CP Photo)

Environment officials used a helicopter to try to gauge the size of the spill, and are taking soil and water samples.

While CN had clean up crews on site about 45 minutes west of Edmonton all day, some residents are concerned that the company is spending more time fixing its track than worrying about the lake.

"Backhoes, hundreds of people, and they're working hard, and they'll work hard to fix [the track], but they don't have one man on this lake right now," Jay VanRassel said. "They've got all the resources, all the equipment, all the money to do it."

VanRassel thinks he and his neighbours should park their cars on the track until all the oil is removed from the lake.

CN spokesman Jim Feeny said they are still trying to determine how much of the bunker fuel oil, used in asphalt production and to power ships and barges, leaked from the rail cars and how much got into the lake.

Crews are working around the clock to mop up the spill, he said. Booms were placed along the length of the derailment and dikes were built to try to contain the oil.

Resident Agnes Rayner says she thinks CN will take care of the clean up.

"We've been living here for close to 50 years," Cliff Haderer added. "We've seen this lake come and go. Mother Nature takes care of it."

The 43 cars 26 of which were carrying the heavy oil were part of a 140-car train heading from Edmonton to Vancouver early Wednesday morning. About 5:20 a.m., as the train was passing between Wabamun Lake and a row of cottages, the cars left the track.

"It was just a loud bang," resident Dean Fodor said. "Everybody shot out of bed. It sounded like a car crash in the city. It definitely woke everyone up."

Twenty-two residents in the area were removed from their homes as a precaution. One of the derailed cars was carrying toluene, a hazardous petrochemical used to make paint thinner, nail polish and adhesives, but Feeny says that container was intact after the accident.

The derailment has closed CN's main line, and Feeny says they hope to reopen it by the end of the week, while the clean up will take at least another eight days.

The cause of the derailment is under investigation.