EON

Federal Government Assesses Blame

Edmonton- The Federal Government has taken a fair amount of time in its investigation of the Wabamun Lake Oil spill and disaster, and received a lot of criticism for its delay. But now the Federal government has decided on three charges against rail company CN, after a long investigation.

In August of 2005 there was a train derailment at Wabamum Lake that resulted in thousands of litres of oil being spilled out. The actual amount of oil was somewhere in the hundreds of thousands of litres.

The CN rail company is charge with two violations under the Fisheries Act, and one violation under the Migratory Birds Convention Act. Under the Birds Act, CN was charged for depositing in the water something that is considered harmful to birds and migratory waterfowl, and under the fisheries act charged for destruction or disruption of habitat for fish.

The Rail Company will appear in court to answer the charges from the Fisheries and Oceans Department, and by Environment Canada. The total amount of oil that was spilled was estimated to be over 700,000 litres of Fuel Oil and nearly 90,000 litres of oil used to treat poles.

Wabamum Lake is about 60 kilometres west of the town of Edmonton.