'A surely poisoned environment': Gogama fire chief seeks PM's help in oil cleanup
Remnants of oil spill after derailment still contaminating drinking water, volunteer fire chief says
Gogama's fire chief has brought his concerns to the doorstep of the Prime Minister's summer cabinet retreat.
Mike Benson arrived at Laurentian University to seek Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's help to force Canadian National Rail to clean up what he describes as the lingering effects of an oil spill caused by a train derailment near Gogama, Ont., in 2015.
"[There's] 1.4 million litres of oil flowing down our river … into our lake and into our drinking water," said Benson.
Sheens of oil are commonly reported on Gogama's Makami River, over which an train derailed in March 2015, as well as Lake Minisinakwa, on which the town is built.
'Not sheen. Oil.'
"We've had hundreds of fish killed, and there's oil on the surface every day," Benson said.
"You can't walk or use the river. As soon as the sediment is disturbed there's oil coming to the surface. Not sheen. Oil."
Benson said the Ontario government has allowed CN Railways to monitor the cleanup itself, in a case of what he referred to in an earlier interview with CBC as "the fox testing the chickens."
A 'surely poisoned environment'
"The [Ontario] Ministry of Environment doesn't do their own testing other than surface water," Benson said. "CN Rail has done their own testing, and the ministry accepts it as true, [and they say], 'So you guys are done. Pack up and leave.'"
"Here we have a surely poisoned environment, and it's got to be cleaned," Benson continued. "It's getting worse very day."
"Oil is running out of the river, into the open water and into community drinking water sources."
The Prime Minister and his cabinet are staying at Laurentian University until Monday afternoon. On the agenda: conversations around the economy and the environment.