What about every other community that has freight rail lines?
Is anyone asking?
The latest from Lac-Mégantic - the city had to serve Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway with legal notice in an attempt to force them to pay the initial clean-up costs associated with the oil spill after their freight train derailed. Right now those costs are only $4.1 million, but experts say they could range up to the hundreds of million of dollars. And MMA is already saying that they don't know if their insurance will cover the costs.
Devastated town puts rail company on notice
MMA given 48 hours to reimburse $4.M in cleanup costs
Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway hasn't paid three of the firms it hired to clean up the massive oil spill that gushed from its derailed freight train on July 6, court documents show.
The company's alleged failure to pay three contractors nearly resulted in a work stoppage last Thursday in downtown Lac-Mégantic - where 5.7 million litres of crude oil seeped into the soil, sewers and nearby Chaudière River after the crash.
The stoppage would have crippled decontamination efforts, the town's mayor said, and was only averted when city council agreed to fork over $4.1 million for services rendered. MMA chairman Ed Burkhardt had pledged to pay for the cleanup in the days following the tragic derailment but isn't holding up his end of the bargain, says Lac-Mégantic Mayor Colette Roy-Laroche.
"We can't afford for work to stop. It's essential to the recovery of our city," Roy-Laroche said during a news conference Tuesday. "The situation has been unacceptable." Lawyers representing city council handed MMA a legal notice Tuesday, giving the company 48 hours to reimburse the $4.1 million. Last week, the U.S.-based firm laid off 19 of its Quebec employees, and Burkhardt has said publicly that he's unsure MMA's insurance policy will cover the massive costs associated with cleaning up the spill. Roy-Laroche wouldn't speculate as to why MMA hasn't paid the contractors.
ECRC, which specializes in draining maritime oil spills, billed the city $1.4 million for its services following the disaster. For days, its workers could be seen along the Lac Mégantic shoreline, pumping crude from the water and containing the spill with plastic absorbing nets.
It is one of three companies certified for such work in Eastern Canada and can charge as much as $1,200 per shift for the use of just one of its response managers. The other firms - CTEH and MD-UN - charged $750,000 and $2,000,000 to the city, respectively. Those costs are merely the beginning, since the decontamination is in its early stages.
The firms were contracted by MMA, but Roy-Laroche says she wants her city to take a bigger role in overseeing the cleanup. The legal notice also demands that MMA give Lac-Mégantic's city manager daily briefings, claiming that communications with the company have been strained since the outset of the disaster.
"Communication with the railroad company has been episodic at best," said Stéphane Bergeron, Quebec's public security minister, during his visit to the city Tuesday.
It's unclear how much the cleanup will cost, but experts say it could range in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Houses sitting on contaminated soil will have to be levelled, and the full extent of the environmental damage will only be known once police vacate the crime scene and allow workers to start digging under the wrecked city centre.
So far, the provincial and federal governments have pledged $95 million in aid to Lac-Mégantic, and the Red Cross has raised more than $4 million to help relocate the 186 people who remain homeless after the crash. Bergeron said his government is willing to put more money into rebuilding the city.
As for Burkhardt, he's been the object of scorn in Lac-Mégantic since the fatal explosion.
Townspeople were outraged that it took the railway boss four days after the time of the accident to show up. When he finally did visit the town on July 10, Burkhardt was jeered by a group of men - some of whom had to be restrained by police.
"There's not much love for him here. He can take his train and get the hell out of town as far as we're concerned," said Denis Couture at the time. His neighbour and friend died in the explosion. "We don't want the train here anymore - it's simple."
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Devastated+town+puts+rail+company+notice/8699178/story.html
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