Capital Power (EPCOR) Decides to Stop Burning Rail-ties!

I've just learned that Capital Power (formerly EPCOR) has decided to stop burning rail-ties at its bioenergy facility in Williams Lake.

I want to thank Capital Power for making that decision. It was the right decision for Williams Lake and Capital Power.

Given this, my blogs on this issue will end for awhile as the facts on the ground begin to rearrange. I will repost once direction is set for dealing with the chips stored at the Station House Gallery.

The work of many people over the past several months has raised awareness of the rail-tie issue behind the scenes. These concerns have been heard. This is a victory for those who raised this issue in community sustainability committees, and those who wrote and spoke to city councilors, the Mayor, our MLA, and Ministry of Environment officials.

Thumbs Up to the Community!

Photo: The left extended lateral most digit of a lesser Higgins

Photo credit: R. Higgins

Your Health and Rail-tie Processing in Williams Lake. Part 3: Rail ties and Fire

AN EXTREME FIRE HAZARD

Creosote burns hot and fast but that is only part of the problem. Uncontrolled fire in creosote results in a great quantity of incompletely combusted compounds. Consider the dioxins, PAHs, and chlorophenols noted in my previous blog. The black smoke coming from such a fire would be full of those. No one would recommend that anyone be exposed to any of this.

A fire in this material could be a major problem depending upon which way the wind is blowing. People in the way of the smoke should either stay indoors and seal off all doors and windows, or leave town as quickly and safely as possible. Of those I have spoken to about this, the minimum noted was 'partial evacuation of the downtown.' I know that sounds dramatic, but this would not be a typical fire. If the city had the further misfortune of a fire occurring during an air inversion (see here for information about inversions in Williams Lake), the smoke would be trapped in the city.

I've asked the City of Williams Lake if the Fire Chief believes that a fire in these chips could be put out. Apparently the Chief believes it could be. I hope he is correct, but consider the short video available below, or at this link if you have a problem with the video below playing.

In the case documented by the video:

1) the wind was blowing the smoke away and because the fire was surrounded by grassland, fire fighters had access. The chip storage area in Williams Lake has very limited access as three sides are valley cliffs;

2) Although the fire was 'contained' the option of actually putting it out did not seem to be on the table. They had to let it burn out by itself;

3) This was a fire in a portion of 1,000 unchipped rail-ties. Chipped wood will burn faster and the quantity on site in Williams Lake is certainly greater than 1,000 ties;

4) The fire documented in the video was clearly not immediately adjacent to the downtown district of a city.

What are the odds of a fire in these chips? Frankly, I'm surprised it hasn't happened already but the fact that the site has access only from one side probably keeps most people out. The site, however, is directly across the street from a pub. There is no fence. It only takes one person, waiting for a ride late at night, who heads across the street to empty their bladder, who flicks a cigarette....

I'm all for trying to find win-win solutions to problems, but in this case, the chipping and storage of rail-ties in Williams Lake needs to stop.

Header Photo: Chipped and unchipped rail-ties behind the Station House Gallery

Photo Credit: R. Higgins

Your Health and Rail-tie Processing in Williams Lake. Part 2: Rail tie chipping

NAME THIS PARK

Did you know that the area immediately behind the rail cars shown here, piled high with chipped rail-ties, is zoned by the City of Williams Lake as Park? Does anyone want to suggest a name the city might adopt for this park?

Exactly how long this area has been used for the storage and chipping of creosote treated rail-ties is unclear. Even city managers do not seem certain. It is believed that the storage of chipped rail-ties began in 1995 (the same year it was zoned as Park) and that the on-site chipping began in the early 2000s. This is concerning.

These rail-ties are being chipped for the purpose of supplying fuel to Capital Power (formerly EPCOR) in Williams Lake. In a study performed in 2001, Lanfranco and Associates reported the following pollutant concentrations in the rail-ties used in Williams Lake (warning- tedious numbers immediately ahead):

1) Dioxins/furans 4,040 pg TEQ /gr (compare to 1 pg TEQ /gr for normal wood waste);

2 )Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) 7,361,000 ng/gr (compare to 12,353 ng/gr for normal wood waste)

3) Chlorophenols 72,093 ng/gr (compare to 30.0 ng/gr for normal wood waste).

The area being used for chipping and storage is at the end of what most people in Williams Lake consider the city's main street, Oliver. It is immediately above the river valley, literally piled to the edge, where rain runoff can rapidly transport pollutants downhill. No one I asked seemed to know just what volume of chipped rail-ties are being stored here but all of the available land appears to be filled with chips stacked higher than the top of the semi-trailer truck seen in this photo.

Unchipped creosote treated wood has been shown to leach dioxins into nearby water (Wan 1995). Chipped ties are more concerning because:

1) The surface area of the chipped ties is vastly greater than that of the unchipped ties and rain water or melting snow running across this area would be expected to carry away much more of the pollutants of concern;

2) The chipping produces dust which:

a) has an even greater surface area to leach pollutants into the soil;

b) can be transported by wind, spreading pollutants into a larger area and increasing risk of human exposure by inhalation and contact;

3) The large surface area increases the amount that will evaporate into the air on hot days, creating odour problems in the commercial core of the city.

This activity is being carried out downtown. It is true that this area has been used as a railroad service yard since around 1919, and it is likely the soil is already contaminated. The current use, however, would reasonably be expected to leach quantities of toxic materials into the surrounding landscape at a scale that has not occurred previously. These toxins are considered some of the most serious with respect to human health.

This is because....

Dioxins. Dioxins were the contaminant in Agent Orange that led to serious health impacts during the Vietnam War. They are both cancer causing and acutely toxic to almost every human organ system (e.g., immune, skin, liver, muscular etc.). Exposure to 70 micrograms per kilogram body weight is enough to cause a Rhesus monkey to rapidly lose weight and its hair and fingernails (IARC 1997). The amount of time it takes the body to naturally rid itself of dioxins, assuming no additional exposures, is measured in many years and they last even longer in the environment. People should not be exposed to dioxin sources. The Canadian Environmental Protection Act desires that they be 'virtually' eliminated (CCME 2001) but large quantities are currently being processed in downtown Williams Lake.

Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs). My Masters degree was focused on the toxicity and metabolism of a particular PAH known as benzo(a)pyrene. It, as with dioxins, is listed as a Group 1 Carcinogen, is known to bioaccumulate (i.e., exposures accumulate in the body and in the food web over time) and is very persistent in the environment. For a sense of how long, consider my story relating to the Exxon Valdez oil spill. The creosote in rail-ties, as it is a coal tar, is mostly PAH in content.

Chlorophenols. These are suspected carcinogens (Group 2A) but more significant as acute toxins. Exposure has been shown to cause skin and liver damage, as well as low birth weight. For general information on chlorophenols, follow this link to the US Department of Health and Human Services.

This material should not be produced or stored within an urban area. If some of the information above sounds concerning, consider what would happen if the stored chips caught fire. That will be the focus of my posting tomorrow.

References

[CCME] Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment. 2001. Canada Wide Standards for Dioxins and Furans. 12p. Available from: http://www.ene.gov.on.ca/envision/gp/A7appendix.pdf

[IARC] 1997. See Part 1 for full reference.

Lanfranco and Associates Inc. 2001. TransCanada Power Emissions Survey Report: Regular Woodwaste and Railtie Woodwaste. Prepared for TransCanada Power. Available from the BC Ministry of Environment.

Wan MT. 1995. Treated wood as a source of dioxin/furan releases. Organohalogen Compounds. 24: 109-114.

Hat Tip: Marten Lettinga, Chemistry, Thompson Rivers University, for locating some of the references

Photo: view of the rail-tie chipping area immediately behind the Station House gallery.

Photo Credit: R. Higgins

Your Health and Rail-tie Processing in Williams Lake. Part 1: The Issues

Creosote treated rail-ties contain large quantities of dioxins, PAHs (Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons) and chlorophenols that cause serious human illness. Dioxins and PAHs are known to include compounds that are listed as Group 1 Carcinogens (cancer causing compounds) by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) while chlorophenols are listed as Group 2B Carcinogens (i.e., they are suspected carcinogens). In addition dioxins and chlorophenols are also known to cause serious adverse affects to many human organ systems at low concentrations, and in the case of dioxins, are very persistent in the environment (IARC 1997).

This is the first of a seven-part blog series looking at what is known regarding the chipping, burning, and disposal of creosote treated rail-ties within the city of Williams Lake. The intent is to provide an overview of how these rail-ties are being processed and burned within the city as well as how the residual ash is being discarded. In addition, I will attempt to provide a small amount of information about the legislation governing pollution and note some options for citizens concerned about the situation. I will attempt to post new parts of this series each day beginning Monday March 15th.

The series will include:

Part 1: The Issues

Part 2: Rail-tie chipping and the health risks of dioxins, chlorophenols, and PAHs.

Part 3: Rail-tie chipping and the risk of a fire within the city.

Part 4: Provincial pollution legislation.

Part 5: Rail-tie burning at Epcor (now Capital Power).

Part 6: Uncontrolled burning of stored wood at Epcor (now Capital Power).

Part 7: The disposal of rail-tie ash in Williams Lake

References

[IARC] International Agency for Reseach on Cancer. 1997. Polychlorinated Dibenzo-para-dioxins and Polychlorinated dibenzofurans. IARC Monograph Volume 69. 666p. Available from: http://monographs.iarc.fr/ENG/Monographs/allmonos90.php

Photo: A view of the rail-tie chipping work area behind the Station House Gallery.

Photo Credit: R. Higgins