HAMILTON TOWNSHIP — The continuing cleanup of the CN train derailment and hazardous- material spill south of County Road 2 near Lake Ontario, just east of Port Hope, is a wait-and-see game for the two property owners most directly impacted.

One of the local residents is Harris McKeen, who has lived in the farmhouse on the land abutting the rail line for 65 years, and the other is Don Hunter, of Hunco Farms, who owns property on both sides of County Road 2 at the site of the early spring train derailment. Both men are awaiting environmental reports when the restoration project is completed by CN.

In the meantime, both their agricultural operations are affected by the situation, plus for McKeen, he and his extended family are unable to use the property’s beach on Lake Ontario because they are being kept out of the cleanup site, he said.

McKeen, whose driveway is being used by CN to gain entrance to the on-going environmental cleanup operations, said about 16 acres of his farm land, including a five-acre pond adjacent to a marsh area (commonly called Duck Harbour), have been impacted by the derailment that occurred on the last Sunday in March of this year.

The wheat planted there could not be fertilized or sprayed because of CN’s activities and so there will be no harvest of this crop, McKeen said in an interview this week.

“It’s a total loss.”

How successful the corrective measures on the water bodies and waterfowl habitat on his farm will be won’t be known for some time, he said, but there hasn’t been any impact on his drinking water.

“I’ll have to wait and see what the environmental reports are,” McKeen said.

Those reports will also let him know when he might be able to sow crops and harvest them again, he added.

Currently CN has people on site 24/7 to operate its water purifying plant and to do testing, McKeen said.CNspokesperson Lindsay

Fedchyshyn confirmed that work is continuing.

“We’ll be there for the next several months,” she said.

Fedchyshyn said she could not comment about McKeen’s ability to access the Lake Ontario beach and would look into the matter.

McKeen’s house is located about 1,200 feet from the track and on March 27 about 10:30 a.m., he recalled hearing “bumping and thumping.” From the room in which he was sitting McKeen said he could look directly out to look at the track and noticed the stopped train. From that vantage point, however, he could not see the stacked up derailed train cars, the seeping aviation fuel or the propane fire. It wasn’t until a friend called to ask why police and fire cars were at his driveway, that he became aware of the situation, McKeen said.

He was among the area’s evacuees while emergency crews were on site.

Because of the magnitude of the situation and that fact he is dealing with a large corporation, McKeen said he has engaged legal counsel and CN’s final reports will go to this firm. He also noted that his extended family usually visits and makes use of his property’s beach on Lake Ontario but “they don’t want anyone using it,” he said.

Access to the clean-up area is “blocked” so he can’t enter, McKeen said.

Like McKeen, his westerly neighbour Don Hunter has not harvested an area of about 15 acres affected by the cleanup, but that he hopes will yield some wheat within the next month.

“I don’t know yet” what the impact will be on the soil and water table, Don Hunter said during an interview Tuesday.

About half of the 34 acres affected by the spill and cleanup have tile drainage in them and depending on where the derailed cars ended up and the effect of heavy cleanup equipment driving in the fields, this will determine the extent of damage to the drainage system, Hunter also said.

“They could be crushed.”

Like McKeen, Hunter is awaiting the completion of the environmental clean up and CN’s reports. To date, Hunter said he has not had dealings with the Ministry of the Environment which had personnel on site almost immediately after the derailment and train car spills.

There hasn’t been a derailment at the site before, both men said.

“These things just don’t happen every day,” Hunter said.