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BNSF Railway fined for disrupting Canadian fish habitat
They could have notified everyone involved of the problems before going over the limits. Then they would have not been fined or found another solution.
Sounds like the work was more involved than BNSF originally thought. Its hard to really know what happed without getting into the weeds on the subject. Perhaps BNSF would have had to stop service to Canadian shippers in the area in order to comply with Canadian environmental regulations. But $75,000 was probably less to pay than having to deal with the after affects of disappointed shippers.
.???..EHEM…IN CAPITAL LETTERS…
Roger Keay:
The line north from Seattle into Canada is X-GN and is NOT a subsidiary road.
Ed Buns
Retired NP-BN-BNF
Fish survived building and maintaining the transcontinental railroad.
I do believe bnsf sends a fair bit of prb coal up that line to Roberts bank don’t think it will b up forsale soon
Frankly, I don’t think the “editor” looks at the comments at all.
The statement at the bottom where people make comments states: Please keep your feedback thoughtful, on-topic and respectful. Offensive language, personal attacks, or irrelevant comments will be deleted.
After looking at the comments for a while now, I have read many irrelevant comments from certain individuals that are never thoughtful, never on-topic, and contain personal attacks. Unless the editor considers mindless babble about conspiracy theories, big government ruining people’s lives, and stating their narrow minded off-topic opinion on a complex subject being a relevant post?
An easy system has been suggested to Trains that would allow their readers to police the posts and readers would decide who should be temporarily or possibly permanently blocked from posting as a way to make News Wire comments more enjoyable relevant for the many.
So until Trains decides to do what they state, I guess the many who do post thoughtful questions and lend insight from personal knowledge/experience will just have to put up with the few whose posts are better suited for the forums of those who live and breathe FOX NEWS and Rush.
What a load of crap!!! Will see if Warren pays the fine or sells off the Canadian line in protest. Canadian government starting to act like it’s neighbor to the south. Fine a railroad over some silly garbage and ASSUME it will just pay it. Show a little backbone and tell Canada to go take a hike. Not what I really wanted to say but if I had would probably not have passed the editors test.
One other thought next time just the track continue to deteriorate and dump a load of let’s say balkin oil or a load of hazmat into the creek. Let’s see what that will cost Warren
That’s the problem with some of you posters you think it’s OK for government US or Canadian to have hand in everything. You really thing these fish were impacted by what bnsf did? More ways for government to fine those who can pay. Period
Fisheries in British Columbia seems to like picking on the railways, almost to the point of nitpicking. CPR once cut down several poplars on their own right of way as part of a construction project. Apparently during periods of high water the adjacent land got flooded and thus was “fish habitat” and the poplars provided shade.
Elsewhere the ditch beside the tracks in an urban area was cleared of debris, another fine. In that case the railway planted bushes and such on the side slopes as part of the required penalty. The next summer the local municipality came along and mowed them all down, as far as I know with no action from fisheries.
Yet another case, the end of a culvert opening into Howe Sound collapsed. The sin in that case was removing the chunks of concrete from the seabed as part of the reconstruction.
There have indeed been problems with the salmon stocks, but addressing the major causes is politically fraught. They seem to go after the trivial to make it look like action is being taken.
John
Mr. Gauthier, thank you for your insightful post. You are absolutely correct. The only way to get attention is to directly email one or more of the editors.
The buffalo, amongst many animal spices of the parries, barely survived the building of the Transcontinental Railroad and it is common knowledge that the salmon has been under pressure everywhere for decades from dams and other water projects.
Mr. Price, really? BNSF didn’t follow the rules, got caught and got fined. While BNSF is a US company, you can bet it is operating in Canada through a Canadian subsidiary that is subject to Canadian laws and the jurisdiction of Canadian courts. By now, BNSF has either paid the fine or launched an appeal. The shame in the story is the time taken, from 2010 to 2014, to get the matter through the courts.
I can see both sides of the story, being both a railroader and somewhat of a tree-hugger. The fish have to be protected; we people have a way of just not stopping until things are destroyed, then being sentimental about “the old days” when fish ran in the streams and you could hunt a bear.
But railroads have to keep things moving, so they have to do the work at hand. Lawyers have always run things at the top, so when that project went long, they probably had two options: apply for an extension, or just finish it. The extension may have required shutting down the work until it could be studied. $75,000 is chicken feed these days. Lost revenue would have been much higher.
Sometimes you run into a rock. Sometimes you run into a law. Either one costs you, but the trains keep rolling. I was crewing with a Jordan Spreader once which ran into something we couldn’t see. The ground just stopped letting us through. The spreader bent and collapsed. A bit of research discovered that there had been a derailment about 20 years prior, and a tank car of Elmers Glue had leaked out. It was still there, and that’s an example of why it’s probably better to clean it up and do it right. The laws are sometimes excessive, but so are our offenses.
Fish habitat must be respected that is why there is a permitting process (submittal of an Environmental Work Plan). Contractors need to follow the rules as spelled out in the work plan, as it applies to the location and time period. I know some will consider these comments NIMBY, tree hugger and the fish kisser like, however these are the same people who will whine when thier fishing trip is a bust. Large corporations need to be proactive not reactive, hire the inspectors to make certain the work and the work plan adhere to the regulations.
@ Sutherland: how 'bout making the Aboriginals get fishing licenses? They seem to despoil everything, including our Montana moose, elk, fish, etc…
Mr. Larry Gauthier:
You are on the right track with your suggestions that we should individually email the editors regarding the irrelevant trolls using this forum as a political sounding board. I took that initiative a few weeks ago, naming two specific individuals. I seem to have achieved partial success. You and the others may have noticed the recent conspicuous absence of one of them; the other, unfortunately, is inexplicably still here, still spewing racist, disparaging references to our Native American fellow citizens, along with other pretentiously cryptic bits of drivel.
I urge each and every one of you to write to the editors of Trains Magazine Newswire, outlining your displeasure with the toxic presence of certain offending individuals. Don’t be afraid to name names, and do, by all means, provide the editors with links to the offending posts.
Your suggestion that the editors might implement a reader-policed system is a good one and a good start toward that would be for all of you to do as I have done.
The individual at Kalmbach, to whom you should direct your complaints is: Diane Laska-Swanke.
Her email is: dswanke@kalmbach.com
Thanks, fellow Newswire subscribers. Together we can solve this pesky situation and maybe get back to serious railroad topics without the political invective.
Reading this story, I can’t help but be reminded of the old phrase “When all is said and done, more is said than is done.”
Certainly corporations need to be held responsible for their actions (and failures to live up to their agreements, mis-deeds, following the law and so forth) BUT, if it really took FOUR years for this judgement to work its way through the Canadian / BC court system and administrative system, I can’t help but that the total legal bills on both sides of this case (lawyers’ fees, govt. court costs, administrative proceedings, etc.) are well in excess of the $75,000 (Canadian?) fine levied against BNSF. And will any of the $70,000 going to the BC (?) “Environmental Damages Fund” actually be used to help the salmon/save the fish as opposed to just disappearing somewhere in this goup’s bureacracy itself?