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Monday, February 14, 2000
Cape Breton town paralysed by spill
Toxic chemical forces residents to stay indoors
By MIKE HUNTER -- Halifax Chronicle Herald
North Sydney - Residents awoke to a state of emergency Saturday morning as crews
dealt with a potentially deadly chemical spill.
All activities in North Sydney were cancelled or delayed,
and stores were closed
for the morning.
Radio stations urged people to remain indoors, and police blocked all access to
town for more than nine hours, while emergency crews dealt with a potential
chemical disaster at the Marine Atlantic terminal.
Crew feared that a transport trailer loaded with
26 tonnes of sodium
hydrosulfite, considered an extremely hazardous material, had been damaged and
was leaking.
It turned out to be a false alarm, but the Emergency Measures Organization,
Environment Department, firefighters and police took no chances.
Winston Musgrave, spokesman for EMO Nova Scotia, said nine bins filled with the
powdered chemical, used in bleaching paper products, were secure. But officials
acted exactly as they should have, Mr. Musgrave said.
The 16-metre trailer, bound for Corner Brook, Nfld., from Charlotte, N.C., was
being loaded aboard Marine Atlantic's cargo ferry Atlantic Freighter on Friday
night when crew noticed a strong chemical smell coming from inside.
When they verified the contents were sodium hydrosulfite and decided the
chemical might have been leaking, they contacted the Canadian Transport
Emergency Centre. Emergency procedures were immediately put in place.
The dangerous goods directorate of Transport Canada instructed crew to move the
trailer to an isolated area of the docks and to contact EMO and other local
authorities immediately.
In the presence of moisture, the chemical quickly decomposes, risking
spontaneous combustion and release of sodium dioxide, a highly toxic gas, said
environmental technician Earl Nickerson.
Mr. Nickerson is a specialist with RST Industries, a transportation company
based in Saint John.
EMO contacted him at about 1 a.m., and he and a colleague arrived by chartered
plane at about 7:45 a.m. Saturday.
Protected by special clothing, the two examined the trailer and found that the
bins containing the chemical were not leaking but that a small amount of
residue from the loading process had escaped detection and was responsible for
the smell.
The potential for disaster was definitely a consideration for local authorities,
Mr. Nickerson said.
Mr. Musgrave said crews "did a superb job of handling the situation here."
Len Rhyno, manager of Marine Atlantic's North Sydney terminal, said the trailer,
belonging to Brookville Transport, had been delivered to the terminal lot at
about 6 p.m. and loaded onto the Atlantic Freighter at about 10:30 p.m., when
the situation began to unfold.
The vessel left on schedule shortly after midnight.
Mr. Rhyno said all but essential employees were evacuated to the fire hall, and
employees expected for work in the morning were also asked to wait there.
As a further precaution, crew moved the Marine Atlantic passenger ferry MV
Joseph and Clara Smallwood away from its dock. The ferry was anchored in the
harbour for the night.
Regional police officers were stationed at roadblocks at every access point to
the town by about 1 a.m., and the RST Industries technicians, the nearest
available people trained to handle a potential spill, were notified.
Mr. Rhyno said Marine Atlantic has plenty of experience dealing with hazardous
materials.
"We do handle dangerous commodities all the time, without a problem," Mr. Rhyno
said. The most hazardous are transported on the Atlantic Freighter or on
specially designated sailings of the larger passenger ferries.
Marine Atlantic public relations director Ted Bartlett said there are dozens,
perhaps hundreds, of trucks loaded with hazardous goods that travel Maritime
highways every day.
"It's a highly regulated industry," he said, "and everything was done exactly as
it should have been done - a textbook experience that went as well as a planned
exercise."
The trailer containing the sodium hydrosulfite was expected to continue its
journey to Newfoundland overnight Saturday, aboard the Atlantic Freighter.
The MV Caribou, scheduled to arrive from Port aux Basques, Nfld. at 7:30 a.m.,
did not dock until 11 a.m., when it prepared for a rapid turnaround.
Mr. Rhyno expected crossings to be a few hours off schedule today as a result of
the incident.
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