Canadian Pacific Railway’s line that crosses Cougar Creek was significantly affected during last June’s flood, but other than adding additional culverts immediately after June 20, the company has no plans for any additional changes.
While bigger culverts were, or are being installed in various locations throughout the valley, including Carrot Creek in Banff National Park and Jura Creek in Exshaw, the major infrastructure culverts along Cougar Creek have not increased in size.
Canmore officials indicated in the past they want to wait until a detailed risk and hazard analysis is complete to make decisions in the long term on the culverts at Elk Run Boulevard and Bow Valley Trail, and the same is true for Alberta Transportation culverts under the Trans-Canada.
But other than additional culverts added immediately after the flood to get the railway line back up and running within days of June 20, CP Rail director of government affairs Michael Lovecchio said no other changes are planned.
“There are no plans at this stage to make any changes there,” Lovecchio told Canmore council at a presentation Tuesday afternoon (May 13). “Over the next coming months and years we are obviously going to be in touch with you and want to hear your concerns if you have any and will take that into account.”
While Lovecchio did not know the number of additional culverts put in place, he said the company is part of the the risk and hazard assessment work on mountain creeks in the region.
“We are looking at it on multiple fronts as a result,” he said, adding the company feels the culvert numbers and size are adequate for water and debris flows. “We are patrolling all the time on the tracks, both weekly mandate inspections by train crews, plus additional patrols.
“As we get toward the freshet, those patrols will increase and we are monitoring the culverts closely.”
Lovecchio was in front of council to update the municipality on the railway’s operations, how it moves dangerous goods and its roles and responsibility under various acts. The corporate communication strategy came out of last year’s tragedy in Lac-Mégantic when a 74-car train carrying crude oil ran away, derailed and exploded, destroying half the community’s downtown core and killing 42 people.
CP operates in six provinces and 13 states with over 22,530 kilometres of track.
“If there is a commodity out there, odds are we are moving it and most of it is coming through Canmore,” he said.
That includes dangerous goods and Transport Canada protective directive 32 allows the company to share that information with municipalities, but only under a confidentially agreement, meaning the public is not able to access information on what dangerous goods are transported on the railway.
Lovecchio said dangerous goods managers for the railway also work with local fire departments to train them on how to respond to an emergency involving a tank car. Canmore’s Fire Rescue department underwent that training last week. With the confidential information on dangerous goods, he added local fire departments can analyze what is coming through the community and when.
“We have a common carrier obligation under the Canadian Transportation Act to move all goods, including dangerous goods,” he said. “Although we don’t have a choice in moving dangerous goods, we are in fact liable for their movement and any costs from an incident.”
He said that is why safety is a top priority for CP, including using technology like hot box detectors every 50 kilometres to detect problems before they become a mechanical failure or derailment.
“Those processes have been responsible for an ever improving safety record,” he said, adding the first quarter of 2014 saw the lowest number of derailment incidents in corporate history and 99.997 per cent of goods transported by rail reach their destination without incident.
