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The town of Deep River says it has been assured that a diesel oil spill in the Ottawa River last week is “highly unlikely” to affect the town’s water supply.
But while Deep River and other towns with municipal water systems were getting regular updates about the spill, it seems many residents above the Des Joachims dam were left scrambling for information.
The spill happened early last Wednesday when an Ottawa Valley Railway (OVR) train derailed about 16 km east of Mattawa.
OVR said two locomotives and six empty centre-beam railcars (typically used to haul lumber) derailed, and nearly 600 feet of track was destroyed, after three beaver dams collapsed and flooded the rail line.
The railway said the locomotive fuel tanks were damaged as the train derailed, and the floodwaters flushed approximately 4,500 imperial gallons (or 20,450 litres) of diesel fuel into the Ottawa River.
The accident took place at about 3 am Wednesday, but OVR said the spill was not reported until some hours later because the response team’s “immediate focus” was on the train’s two-man crew, who received minor injuries in the crash.
OVR said that with the assistance of the Ministry of the Environment and Environment Canada, the railway monitored the main release of fuel that washed into the river, and later set up booms about 8 km downstream to corral and direct the fuel to shore, where it could extracted.
The company said some fuel was diluted to the extent that it could not be removed, but also to the point where it “does not represent any danger to the public.”
While all that was going on, however, communities downstream were wondering how to respond.
Deep River closed its water intake pipe temporarily Wednesday night as a precaution, but the intake was re-opened Thursday and town CAO Gene Kiviaho said the municipality was assured the spill would have no effect on the river water supply.
“They’re telling us it’s highly unlikely it will have any effect on our drinking water,” he said.
While the town was getting updates on the spill, the municipality closest to the spill site, the townships of Head, Clara, Maria, was left in the dark.
Deputy clerk Ruth Morin said the first the township heard of the spill was a brief item on the radio news Wednesday night.
Thursday morning “we Googled it” to find further media reports on the situation.
Morin said it took five phone calls “before I got anyone who could give me any answers” on the issue.
“It’s extremely frustrating,” she said Friday. “To date we have been given nothing in writing, nothing to tell our residents.”
Morin said she had been assured the spill was being contained, but “whether it will work or not, what we should look for – nothing.”
“It’s like we don’t count.”
Sue McSheffrey, president of the local NDP riding association, says that’s not good enough.
The riding association is calling for an investigation into the spill and the communication – or lack of it – that followed.
“This is just not good enough. Residents of Renfrew County deserve better.”
McSheffrey is calling for an investigation into “how the derailment happened, why it took so long to report the spill, the adequacy of the cleanup and why federal and provincial ministries refused to inform or help local municipalities deal with the spill?”