EDMONTON — A spill of 90 litres of diesel fuel into an Edmonton storm sewer will cost Canadian National Railway more than $2.5 million in fines.
The federal government says the company has been ordered to pay up after pleading guilty to several environmental charges this week.
CN (TSX:CNR) was ordered last month to pay $125,000 for charges laid under Alberta environmental laws in the same spill.
The federal government says the diesel spilled in April 2015 because of a fuel-storage system that did not meet standards at CN’s Bissell Yard in Edmonton.
The spill created a sheen up to two kilometres long on the North Saskatchewan River and was traced back over eight kilometres through the sewers to the yard.
CN has said it regrets the “unfortunate incident.”
Ottawa’s Environmental Offenders Registry says CN has had one other conviction for spilling diesel in Surrey, B.C. in 2009.
In that case, the company was fined $75,000 after a slick was noticed near where Barker Creek meets the Fraser River.
The slick was traced back to a pumping station at CN’s Thornton Yards.