. oo Fe, Co tg fo ae / ; Je, joe . iN Y | . , . ‘ | ‘ , a . e \ se . a 5 eT, ’ an Vere ‘ ° hae : % 4 & on toa Pt MAYOR MARILYN Baker is right to be plenty worried about the July 7 spill of 14,000 gallons of deadly chemi- cals along the CN tracks. It is the second time a near. apocalypse of bad chemistry has happened in’ North Vancouver since June, Coming on the heels of the May 5 derailment of TE B.C. Rail tank cars filled with liquefied pet- roleum in’ West Vancouver, the North Shore has lithe reason tu be smug about rail safety or the possibility of a chemical holocaust of some kind. Both of the North Van derail ments occurred in the early even- ing, | note, whieh is a great time to be hit, if you happen to be sit- ting at home, by a vapor cloud of distil'ed poison. The West Van pile-up was in the early morning — another great time. In the June 20 accident, six chlorine and three caustic soda tank cars, each carrying tons of corrosive witch's brew, left the rails due to ‘‘splitting,’” meaning the tired old track gave out. The combination was slightly different during the second mid- summernight'’s North Van wreck: only two chlorine cats, three with caustic soda and one containing a f salt solution. The cars came oi! the rails on } their way out of the Occidental Petroleum Lid. plant near Main Street and Harbour Avenue. The undercarriage of one of the caustic soda tanks was ripped open. A cloud of badness formed. An evacuation of nearby businesses was already underway before fire-tighters decided the deadly chlorine tanks were intact, and they took their finger off the panic button, Caustic soda — hurray, hur- tay! — is ‘tmuch less hazardous than chlorine,’’ as a CN spokesman optimistically put it. Still, a twist in the winds could have sent the vapor cloud that formed over the stricken tank in- to a nearby residential neighborhood. if IT were Ms. Baker, | would be pounding my fist on the table during the meetings she sought with Canadian National Railway officials. They are guilty of neglect in every respect, except the narrow- ly legalistic. There should be NO derailments of tank cars carrying deadly toxins, EVER. If a railway can’t guarantee this, it has no business shipping such stuff through populated areas. All it takes is ONE accident and you can have a mass horror situation on your hands s9 fast it is all over before you are quite aware that it has started. Canada was lucky in the ex- treme back in 1979 when a 25-car Canadian Pacific freight train derailed at Mississauga, Ontario, and a chlorine tank car cuptured., Some 90 tons of Liquid chlonne were celeased, Mad aonearby tank car with propane also been damaged -— and only God oor fuck or fate prevented it — an entire city might lave gone up ina burst of blue flame. As it wits, a quarter of a million nearby residents were evacuated, Lucky, again, in 1983, when a giant) cloud) of chlorine gas escaped from a pulp mill in Fort Franees, Ontario, only a. suf! wind prevented the poison from teaching, among other things, a hospital. There is a false impression that chemical disasters are Third World phenomena. The Bophal, India, leak of highly toxic diox- ine, stands out as the worst chemical Chernobyl in terms of sheer body-count, but derail- ments, truck mishaps and leakage from plants in industrialized countries are far more common than anybody wants to admit. According to Anthony Maz- zocchi, a former top brass with the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers International Union, “The potential for chemical disasters is far worse in developed countries than it is in the Third World.” The reason? Simply the prac- tice of locating several plants close together in a large complex. Through a chain reaction, a small spill in one plant can wipe out controls at larger plants, leading to a full-scale disaster. In 1984, there were 159 train accidents in Canada involving hazardous cargos. Each year, over 50,000 tank cars containing highly toxic materials move through urban areas. There is an interesting sub- plot, as it were, to this issue. Ac- cording to an organization called the United) Transportation Union, the safety of our railways is threatened ‘tas never befoie’’ by rail companies trying to substitute caboose and rear crew with a high-tech device called and ‘‘End-of-Train-Information- System,”’ This kind of cost-cutting, ac- cording to UTU spokesman John Keirstead, is sure to ‘further erode the safety precautions of the rail system."’ itis not just the derailments on the North Shore that we should be paying attention to. These are, so far, no more than a minor part of a dangerous pattern that has set in across the country, with the result that, last year, there were 300 derailments! Get mad, Mayor Baker. Get serious, too. Residents ignore alarms WHEN THE EMERGENCY bells sound in an apartment block, resi- dents are urged to call their local fire department. Inspector Dave Burgess of the North Vancouver City Fire Department said in the past month there have been three instances where apartment bells have sound- ed, but no one called the fire department. He said in one case residents waited outside for five minutes, while the bells rang, believing a call was made by the apartment manager, who was absent at the time. “If there are 30 suites in an apartment we should get 30 calls,’’ he said. ‘*A lot of people tend to rely on the manager, but there could be the possibility that he is away.”’ He said all three cases involved false alarms, but despite that fact, calls should have been made to the department. CONSTRUCTION DELAYED Bob Hunter U nfi nM ished © strictly personal © 8. et Ss Ww V re p ri ey rs THE OWNER of property at 6232 Wellington Avenue, West Van. couver successfully defended himself recently at a hearing held to determine if the building on the site should be declared a nuisance and pulled down, West Vancouver District Council granted Kenneth Lee a reprieve on the condition that he obtain liabili- I NEVER META ROLLER COASTER I DIDN'T LIKE! ATM Party, Vi United Feature Syndicate. Inc GARFIELD: | 1978 yfO ore ty insurance for the site, secure the building and obtain a building permit (¢ continue canstruction, Lee said he has beer delved in proceeding with construction of a house on the site because of finan: cial reasons, adding that he expects work ta be completed by Jan., 1987, Lee said he will lose $70,000 if GARFIELD'S PANES hots ng dectated a ae ladies’ Fashions Esprit (Daa stl Moratti Non-Fiction Santa Cruz goers South Park Royal Upstairs Gallery Over 1,000 prizes will be ¢iven away during Playland’s GARFIELD CATAMANIA DAYS!* You could win a Norco Mountain bike, Sony Walkman or portable radio, Swatch, B.C. Lions tickets, MCA Music: tape, movie passes, and mare! Plus, enter to win our Grand Prize of a trip for four by air to Hawaii.* All-Day-Ride-Pass and traditional ride tickets available everyday. 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