After train derailment in Delta, B.C., nearby residents worry about their safety

After a train derailment involving two locomotives and five cars in Delta, B.C., early Sunday, residents who live along the rail line say the tracks should be moved away from populated areas for safety reasons.

"It could have happened anywhere, even next to our homes," said Erik Seiz, who lives in the Crescent Beach neighbourhood of Surrey, B.C., a community bisected by a stretch of the busy Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) line that connects Seattle and Vancouver.

The derailment happened a few kilometres north of Crescent Beach near Highway 91.

The cause of the derailment is under investigation, BNSF spokesperson Lena Kent told CBC News in a statement. Kent said fuel from one of the locomotives spilled in the derailment, but no hazardous materials were compromised and there was no threat to the public. 

But that doesn't offer much consolation to Seiz, who has witnessed dozens of train breakdowns and stoppages in the area. 

In January, a BNSF train blocked access from Surrey to the Crescent Beach area for hours. In December 2020, a train carrying crude oil derailed and caught fire on the same railway line, 20 kilometres south of White Rock. 

Seiz said he is worried about huge amounts of hazardous chemicals like chlorine that move along the seaside corridor, including the waterfront of White Rock, B.C.

Exposure to chlorine, which is used for water treatment and in industries including pulp and paper, mining and plastics manufacturing, can be fatal, according to WorkSafeBC.

In an email to CBC, BSNF said it uses specialized rail cars to carry hazardous materials, mobile apps to equip first responders with critical safety information, and a software system to determine the safest rail routes. 

Transportation consultant Mary-Jane Bennett says the potential for derailments of trains carrying hazardous cargo creates a "public policy dilemma."

"You need chlorine and trains are an efficient means to transport [it] but they pose a significant risk while travelling though a major town," she said. 

A possible alternative, Bennett says, is to move the rail line inland, away from densely populated areas and scenic waterfronts. 

"It would reduce the risk for a catastrophic derailment," she said.

In September 2014, White Rock council voted to formally begin work on approaching the federal government to have the rail line relocated away from the waterfront.

But despite years of campaigning, both the province and the federal government have shown little interest in the proposal. 

"We need to put the rerouting of the railway line into horizon again," said Seiz, who says the latest derailment is a wake-up call to move the campaign forward. 

CBC reached out to the City of White Rock on the current status of the relocation campaign but didn't hear back before publication deadline.

Advocates for relocating the rail line have proposed an alternative along King George Boulevard and Highway 99 with a tunnelled section between 16th and 36th avenues.

Such rerouting of rail lines falls under the federal Railway Relocation and Crossing Act, a law designed to give municipal and provincial governments the authority to complete the relocation of a rail line and the rerouting of rail traffic.

Thus far, the only reported relocation under the act was the 1987 relocation of a rail yard and lines from Regina.