31 March 2006
Safety of Proposed Whitecaps Stadium in Question
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Hazardous materials are often shipped through the downtown rail
yards. The city is considering a proposal to build a 15,000-seat stadium above the yards.
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Vancouver - A local toxicologist has been threatened on a Vancouver Whitecaps fanclub website
after he raised concerns about the safety of building the team's soccer stadium above the downtown rail yards.
"I never would have thought it would come to this," says Bruce Clarkson, a former employee with the Canadian Centre for
Toxicology. He believes the amount of hazardous waste that is transported through the rail yards could be potentially dangerous for
spectators. "If people want to call me names, that's fine, but they're trying to post my home address and phone number [on their
website]."
The Whitecaps are currently proposing a 15,000-seat soccer stadium along Gastown's waterfront. Last week, a local newspaper
reported on Clarkson's concerns and an online message board for fans of the Vancouver Whitecaps, called the Vancouver Southsiders, has
since made threats and repeated attempts to post Clarkson's personal information on the internet.
"Bruce your [sic] a cHHH and I'm gonna shit on your doorstep," said one poster, who goes by the name of Guttergob, adding that
he wants to kick everyone that lives in the Downtown Eastside in the teeth. Posters have been encouraged to find Clarkson's address by
the site's administrator, Andrew Chobaniuk, who goes by the nickname Morbital.
Chobaniuk wrote: "Find out his address. I'll dump some "toxic waste" on his porch," and "Fuck being
politically correct and respecting fags like Clarkson."
Chobaniuk, however, says Clarkson is overreacting. "The Southsiders are fanatical soccer fans, nothing more," he says.
"We're 100 percent for the new stadium, so obviously we're peeved that [Clarkson is talking] about this toxic waste stuff, which
is pretty far fetched with some of it. But the Southsiders aren't known for violence."
The fan group calls themselves the Southsiders because they watch the games from the south side of the Burnaby stadium. Chobaniuk says
they are independent from the Whitecaps, and he has a policy not to censor anyone's postings. If Clarkson wants to have his information
removed from the site, Chobaniuk adds, he can contact him and request that it be deleted.
Clarkson, who lives adjacent to the rail yards, says he is worried about his personal safety, to the extent that he has filed a report
with the Vancouver Police Department.
John Rocha, president of the Whitecaps, stresses that the Southsiders are not connected with the organization, although there is a link
to the Southsiders website from the official Whitecaps website. Rocha adds that they do not support the posters' tactics. "We've
relayed to [the Southsiders] that this doesn't help the process and we prefer that they don't approach things in that matter," he
says.
For the past three weeks, Clarkson has been recording the amount of hazardous material that goes through the rail yard. Each rail car
that contains hazardous material has a placard on the side which identifies the chemical on board. Clarkson claims to have identified a
number of explosive chemicals and poisonous gases, including sodium chlorate, which is used in the manufacturing of pulp and paper. He
says an accident could have a deadly impact if there were 15,000 people stuck in an open-air stadium. "What's going to
happen if we do have a hazardous spill incident, a fire or possible explosion, which is not out of the realm of possibility given the
nature of these chemicals?" says Clarkson.
The potential danger of hazardous material at the rail yards has been a long-standing concern with many residents and
workers in the area. Last January, two rail yard workers got mysteriously sick over what was feared to be a possible chemical leak. The
Vancouver Fire Department hazardous-materials units closed off a section of the waterfront, but were unable to find any
chemical leaks. Both workers recovered from their illnesses.
The Canadian Pacific Railway insists the rail cars pose no threat and are well secured. Ed Greenberg, a spokesperson with CPR, says of
the 281,000 rail cars that moved through the downtown rail yard last year, only .04 percent of them contained hazardous materials, which
he calls regulated commodities. "We do not store any product that is potentially hazardous to the general public in our downtown
yard," says Ed Greenberg, a spokesperson with CPR. "The handful of cars that have regulated commodities are not being stored
there; they're flowing through the yard on the way to another rail system."
The city is currently investigating the issue of hazardous goods and emergency access in its review of the stadium proposal. Kevin
McNaney, the city planner in charge of the Whitecaps project, says he expects to hear from the fire department this week. The final
report on the stadium will be submitted to council in May.
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