Skip to Content

Chlorine watch

Is North Vancouver ready for a chlorine leak during an earthquake?

Jocelyn Gollner
Mar 31st, 2011

The Canexus Chemical plant is located in North Vancouver. Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons 

The City of North Vancouver's key spokesperson, the mayor, believes the municipality is ready to face both a major earthquake and a chlorine leak at the Canexus Chemical plant. This scenario, though terrible to imagine, could occur, residents say---a chlorine leak caused by earthquake damage to the plant. Not everyone agrees with Mayor Richard Walton or thinks that the city is prepared.

 They say the city's preparedness plan would fail  in the case of a chlorine accident caused by an earthquake.  They worry that residents would have no way of being informed of what to do or where to go, or how to keep themselves safe, if an earthquake were to compromise the infrastructure of the Canexus chlorine facility, which is located on the Burrard Inlet beneath the Second Narrows Bridge.

Mayor Walton praises Canexus's safety record when asked about whether he thinks the community is prepared.  An emergency management office officer noted that Canexus has funded the city's "Rapid Notify" alerting tool that relies on telephoning people about a disaster. 

Continue Reading »
(6) COMMENTS

"It goes into your city as a cold dense killing cloud," hazardous materials consultant says of chlorine disasters

Linda Solomon
Dec 1st, 2009

Photograph of a derailed chlorine car in Graniteville, South Carolina with "cold dense cloud" beginning to form.

A Canadian company is dumping its "waste chlorine" into the markets of the United States and by doing so,  alleges a hazardous material expert in Washington, DC, the company is endangering the lives of millions of citizens in and beyond Vancouver. Washington, Boston, Chicago, St. Louis have  banned chlorine from being transported along their rails and Fred Millar, the  hazardous materials expert, says the Olympics offers a "teachable moment" to Vancouver regarding the dangers of transporting the chlorine through the city.

A spill, according to the chlorine industry itself, could kill people within 15 miles of the track. The information is out there, and it's scary.  But, I wonder as I sift through my notes, after talking to Millar, does Vancouver want to learn?

 Strategy to keep people in the dark?

Continue Reading »
(0) COMMENTS
Syndicate content