A Kamloops councillor wants to make sure the dust does not settle when CN Rail starts hauling coal.

Teck has signed a five-year contract for CN to haul coal from Kamloops to Vancouver starting in 2021.

Dale Bass says CP had to start watering down coal about 15 years ago, after people in Dallas had to deal with coal dust for years. She hopes CN has to follow through with the same procedure as well.

“Not knowing what it is that CN wants to do, but seeing the words ‘train,’ and ‘coal dust,’ and knowing that means going through the city, I actually asked for some feedback from city hall administration on what exactly is involved here,” Bass says.

“The other thing that concerns me is the length of these trains coming through now. Because they’re a lot longer than they were years ago. I stopped and counted one train and it had 137 cars on it. Now if they’re all filled with coal, I really want to be sure it’s dealt with in a way that dust doesn’t fly off and land in people’s backyards.”

Bass says coal dust coming off trains could affect people near a rail line anywhere in Kamloops if it’s not handled properly.

Spokespersons for CN Rail and Teck Resources have so far declined requests from NL News to comment further on matters to do with the new coal-hauling contract.