St. Lazare, Man. 鈥� The Transportation Safety Board on March 1 released an update to its investigation into a crude-by-rail derailment and spill in the Assiniboine River valley southeast of St. Lazare, Man., which occurred on Feb. 16.
鈥淥n 16 February 2019, at 2:31听am Central Standard Time, a Canadian National (CN) unit train, consisting of 110听tank cars loaded with petroleum crude oil (UN1267, Class听3 PG听I), was proceeding eastward at about 49听mph on the CN Rivers Subdivision when it experienced a train-initiated emergency brake application at Mile听198.3 near St-Lazare, Manitoba. The temperature at the time was about 鈭�27掳C. TSB site examination determined that 37听Class听117R tank cars had derailed near mile听197.0.
鈥淭he fifth and sixth cars remained upright and had no visible tank damage or leaks. The remaining 35听derailed cars came to rest piled up in various positions over a distance of approximately 300听to 400听feet. About 16听tank cars sustained breaches and released at least 1,000,000听litres of product, which was mostly contained in a low-lying area adjacent to the track. There was no fire, no injuries and no evacuation. The TSB is investigating,鈥� the update said.
One million litres is equal to 1,000 cubic metres, or 6,290 barrels of oil. That is the equivalent of the full contents of 9 rail cars, if they were loaded to a 700 barrel capacity.
The derailment spilled substantially more than a January 2012 derailment near Oxbow, when 22 cars derailed after a rig worker departing a nearby drilling rig drove his pickup into the side of the train at night. In that instance, two-thirds of one car were spilled.
The TSB work on-site at St. Lazare. has been completed. All听35 of the damaged tank cars were examined and 7 of them were selected for a more detailed examination to be conducted at a later date in order to evaluate tank car performance. The TSB has also recovered select track components and wheel sets of interest, which are being forwarded to its engineering laboratory in Ottawa for detailed failure analysis.
CN resumed operations on the mainline the following day.
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