Docken & Company News

Update January 2009

(1/7/2009) The highest Court in Alberta, the Alberta Court of Appeal, has approved the Class Action against Canadian Pacific Railway for the contamination with TCE of groundwater beneath the community of Ogden in the City of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The effected area is within the boundaries of 72nd Avenue SE (as the north boundary of the area), to the CPR’s property line adjacent to Ogden Road SE (as the east boundary of the area), to 76 Avenue SE (as the south boundary), to 20th Street SE going north to the base of what is known as Lynwood Ridge SE (as the west boundary – 20th Street SE to 74 Avenue SE to 72 Avenue SE). This boundary may be expanded to include other areas should there be evidence of contamination beyond these geographic limits.

The lawsuit is now in the discovery stage where both sides have exchanged all of their documents that relate to the case. The next step is to conduct Examinations including Examinations of representatives from CPR.

Once Examinations are concluded we expect to proceed to Trial.

It has been approximately 9 years since CPR first discovered the pollution. They have not offered a solution to the residents. In the Class Action we are seeking damages for losses in property values and losses in rental income.

Should residents have concerns about their health or their property, we are suggesting people contact their government officials including their Alderman, Health Authority, MLA or the provincial Premier because they have jurisdiction to deal with this issue. Essentially, a good number of homes in Ogden have levels of TCE in them that are higher than the levels recommended by Health Canada. TCE or trichloroethylene which is in these homes is known to have adverse health affects.

Potentially there are various things that residents can do including installing fans in their homes to ventilate the TCE vapours, reconstruction of their basements to seal them off from vapours coming into the house or business premises, or simply selling their houses and absorbing the loss. These losses or expenses incurred are included in the Class Action for recovery.