The Snaw-naw-as (Nanoose) First Nation is taking the Island Corridor Foundation and the federal government to court to force a cleanup of contaminated soil and removal of old equipment from a former railway right-of-way.
In 1912, the Crown granted the right-of-way to the E&N Railway Company, owned and operated by Canadian Pacific Railway, to build and operate a railway on Vancouver Island, but passenger service on the E&N shut down in 2011 because of the poor condition of the rails.
In March of last year, senior governments announced that the right-of-way would be returned to the Snaw-naw-as nation.
But Chief Brent Edwards said the former rail corridor was returned in a “contaminated and dilapidated state.”
Edwards, whose nation began to remove old ties and the railway tracks this week, said the lands “must be remediated to a state that is acceptable to the Snaw-naw-as.”
The nation’s claim filed in the Supreme Court of B.C. in Victoria says as a result of its railway use, the right-of-way is contaminated by a number of substances, including spilled or leaked liquids such as oil, gasoline, diesel fuel, cleaning solvents and detergents, herbicides, roofing shingles with asbestos, transformers and metals.
It notes that railroad ties are usually treated with chemicals such as creosote, and adds that the natural surface of the land was damaged and water patterns changed. Topsoil was removed, ditches were excavated, debris was deposited, land was compacted and rail materials including ties, spikes and hardware were abandoned.
The nation is asking that the court order the foundation and federal government to remove railway debris left behind and remediate the lands, or compensate the nation for doing the work.
The federal government breached its duty by failing to ensure that the right-of-way lands were fully remediated and returned to the nation once they were no longer used for rail services, the claim says.
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