Divers called in to help clean Gogama train derailment site

Seven months after the train derailment in Gogama, CN Rail is still cleaning up the site — grain by grain.

Chair of the local services board, Gerry Talbot says massive vacuums have been cleaning up the bulk of the river shores and surface but divers are coming in to scrub the rocks on the river bed. He says large tanks housing the recovered oil are also getting a scrub down after which, the oil will be shipped off site.

“Once the tanks are finished being cleaned, the ground where the tanks are sitting will be reclaimed.”

One of the biggest concerns for citizens is when the Old Gogama Rd will be re-opening, Talbot says locals won’t have long to wait.

“There’s been a lot of questions as to when that will be taking place.  Probably at the end of this month, that will be accomplished.”

CN Rail is erecting a fence around the site in the coming days, re-opening the road for the first time since March. Over five million litres of water and 60,000 tonnes of crude oil-contaminated soil has been removed from the site so far.