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cali

(114,904 posts)
Sun Jul 28, 2013, 12:43 PM Jul 2013

Lac Megantic update: U.S. Railway Co. refuses to pay $4 million dollar clean up bill



Railway’s refusal to pay for cleanup is another wound for Lac-Mégantic:

As the horror of the Lac-Mégantic train crash fully sinks in, another travesty has emerged from MM&A, the U.S.-owned railway that was responsible for the crash. And in some ways it’s almost as unsettling as the original incident.

According to the Star’s Allan Woods, the mayor of the once-charming Quebec town says the rail company, Montreal, Maine & Atlantic, is refusing to pay the $4-million cleanup bill for the train accident that destroyed a huge swath of the town’s centre and leaked 5.7 million litres of crude oil into the soil, lake and nearby river. That’s a shocking lack of moral — and corporate — responsibility.

While MM&A’s troubles continue, with a Quebec police raid on its Montreal offices late this week, the company’s tawdry refusal to pay the cleanup crews has created a furor among citizens who should be left to grieve without distractions the loss of so many friends and relatives. Already so deeply wounded, they should not be subjected to further outrage from the company that is behind the desolation of their town.

If MM&A refuses to pay its way, then perhaps the public shaming it is experiencing will finally provide the incentive to honour its debt. Sadly, the company has not issued any statements to that effect. In any case, MM&A must step up, take care of its responsibility to the people of Lac-Mégantic and pay the cleanup crews.

<snip>

http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorials/2013/07/27/railways_refusal_to_pay_for_cleanup_is_another_wound_for_lacmgantic_editorial.html
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Lac Megantic update: U.S. Railway Co. refuses to pay $4 million dollar clean up bill (Original Post) cali Jul 2013 OP
You can't publicly shame someone Nevernose Jul 2013 #1
so true and Burkehardt has no shame cali Jul 2013 #3
I think this is important. Perhaps you will re-post tomorrow? Egalitarian Thug Jul 2013 #2
Thanks ET. Maybe I'll do so. cali Jul 2013 #4
I hope so. Sunday is too sporadic and only the pros are here. n/t Egalitarian Thug Jul 2013 #13
Sickening, yet not surprising. Brickbat Jul 2013 #5
Lac-Mégantic a collision of water, oil and transport deregulation cali Jul 2013 #6
One Person the whole shift kartski Jul 2013 #12
Time for asset seizure. Downwinder Jul 2013 #7
time for criminal prosecution cali Jul 2013 #8
Be like Ecuador and Chevron. Downwinder Jul 2013 #10
5.6 million litres of oil spilled in Lac-Mégantic cali Jul 2013 #9
I think I'll burn my passport Stonepounder Jul 2013 #11
Nationalize the company and hand it over to the CNN. See how fast MM&A settles when they face Monk06 Jul 2013 #14
Wonder how much insurance coverage Downwinder Jul 2013 #15
In a just word he'd be arrested for manslaughter malaise Jul 2013 #16
K&R n/t Catherina Jul 2013 #17
You'll not see Burkehardt on Canadian soil again Mopar151 Jul 2013 #18
 

cali

(114,904 posts)
3. so true and Burkehardt has no shame
Sun Jul 28, 2013, 12:51 PM
Jul 2013

this is a guy that joked that he'd have to wear a bullet proof vest when he went to Lac Megantic- and that was two days after the derailment.

Brickbat

(19,339 posts)
5. Sickening, yet not surprising.
Sun Jul 28, 2013, 12:53 PM
Jul 2013

And the public shaming won't work. If it pays, that's as good as an admission of liability.

K&R

 

cali

(114,904 posts)
6. Lac-Mégantic a collision of water, oil and transport deregulation
Sun Jul 28, 2013, 12:55 PM
Jul 2013

How easy it would be to lay the blame for the tragedy in Lac-Mégantic on the engineer who ran the train. But the real responsibility lies with the governments on both sides of the border who have deregulated their transport sectors, gutted freshwater protections and promoted the spectacular growth and transport of new and unsustainable fossil fuels.

Starting back in the 1970s, the US government deregulated rail transport, allowing deep staff reductions, the removal of brakemen from trains and lower safety standards for shipping hazardous materials. Canadian governments followed suit and allowed the railways to self-regulate safety standards and continue to ship oil in the older, accident-prone tanker cars of the kind that crashed into Lac-Mégantic.

Just last year, Transport Canada gave Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railways the green light to run each train with just one engineer, which explains how one man came to be in charge of 72 cars and five locomotives carrying combustible energy through inhabited communities.

The Harper government, meanwhile, has gutted environmental regulation and freshwater protection in order to speed up the development of the Alberta tar sands

<snip>

http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/maude-barlow/2013/07/lac-m%C3%A9gantic-collision-water-oil-and-transport-deregulation

 

cali

(114,904 posts)
8. time for criminal prosecution
Sun Jul 28, 2013, 12:57 PM
Jul 2013

It's a U.S. Company. I'm not sure how the Canadian government could enforce that.

Downwinder

(12,869 posts)
10. Be like Ecuador and Chevron.
Sun Jul 28, 2013, 01:13 PM
Jul 2013

Take the assets in Canada. then go to US courts. Or file initially in US.

 

cali

(114,904 posts)
9. 5.6 million litres of oil spilled in Lac-Mégantic
Sun Jul 28, 2013, 01:01 PM
Jul 2013

t might take weeks before the extent of the damage from the July 6 train derailment in Lac-Mégantic is known, but 16 days after a train carrying crude oil crashed into the heart of Lac-Mégantic, the provincial government has revealed just how much oil appears to have been spilled.

There were 7.2 million litres of light crude oil aboard the ill-fated Montreal Main & Atlantic Railway train, but Quebec’s Department of Sustainable Development, Environment and Parks says about 5.63 million litres were released into the air, water and soil during the derailment.

Of the 72 tankers, which were carrying 100,000 litres each, only nine withstood the impact. Twenty tankers were completely emptied, and an additional 43 — with an estimated 670,000 residual litres of crude oil among them — were drained and moved in the cleanup efforts following the deadly explosion.

Earlier reports indicate it took first responders roughly 72 hours after the crash to plug the spilling crude and minimize damage to the nearby Chaudière River, which has its source in Lac Mégantic. Using a dam between the lake and the river, as well as a system of downstream dikes, cleanup crews slowed the flow of contaminated water and were able to pump it out.

<snip>

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/million+litres+spilled+M%C3%A9gantic/8693863/story.html

Stonepounder

(4,033 posts)
11. I think I'll burn my passport
Sun Jul 28, 2013, 02:50 PM
Jul 2013

My wife and I used to enjoy traveling to other countries. Now I would be too embarrassed to go outside of the US. We have the Attorney General of the US having to promise, in writing, that we won't seek the death penalty and won't torture one of our citizens if extradited (to Russia, no less!). We have state governments passing blatantly unconstitutional laws to disenfranchise minorities, and take constitutional rights away from women. We have foreign countries 'outsourcing' their jobs to the US because prison labor is so cheap (even cheaper than locating factories in Mexico!). We have a federal government that is so consumed at the thought of a black man in the White House that it is even threatening to shut down the government and let the country go bankrupt rather than negotiate with the President. I could go on, but I would feel too ashamed to show my face in Mexico, or Canada, or anywhere in Europe.

When I hear someone singing about 'Proud to be an American, because at least I know I'm free' I want to puke.

Monk06

(7,675 posts)
14. Nationalize the company and hand it over to the CNN. See how fast MM&A settles when they face
Sun Jul 28, 2013, 03:42 PM
Jul 2013

their stock going to $0.

Downwinder

(12,869 posts)
15. Wonder how much insurance coverage
Sun Jul 28, 2013, 07:47 PM
Jul 2013

a Rail Road has. Probably about the same as a fertilizer company.

malaise

(269,208 posts)
16. In a just word he'd be arrested for manslaughter
Sun Jul 28, 2013, 07:51 PM
Jul 2013

along with all those who made this accident possible.

Regulations are mandatory!!

Mopar151

(10,002 posts)
18. You'll not see Burkehardt on Canadian soil again
Mon Jul 29, 2013, 07:51 PM
Jul 2013

Until he's in the hands of the Mounties. He has a new toothbrush in the inside pocket of his suitcoat, even now.

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