Lac-Megantic Oil Clean-Up Effort Could Take More Than a Year
Cleaning up spilled oil from a run-away train that derailed and exploded in the Quebec town of Lac-Megantic more than a week ago will take months if not more than a year, a Quebec government official said Tuesday.
“It’ll probably take more than a year to decontaminate the soil,” Michel Rousseau, assistant deputy minister for Quebec’s Environment Ministry, said in an interview with Canada Real Time. “There’s a lot of work to be done, but we will do it. Everybody is working hard.”
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Crews haven’t yet been able to enter the so-called “red zone,” the epicenter of the blast, where forensic teams are working to retrieve human remains and gather evidence for the various probes into the derailment, he said.
The death toll Monday rose to 37, as more bodies were recovered. Thirteen others are still missing and presumed dead, according to Quebec authorities.
An estimated 1.7 million gallons of crude oil either spilled or burned, Mr. Rousseau said, citing numbers given to the government by Montreal Maine & Atlantic Railway Inc., the train’s operator.
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http://blogs.wsj.com/canadarealtime/2013/07/16/lac-megantic-oil-clean-up-effort-could-take-more-than-a-year/