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More than 90 percent of the fish in the Cheakamus River suffocated in early August after a CN train derailed, dumping about 40,000 litres of sodium hydroxide, a caustic soda similar to oven cleaner that gives off heat when exposed to water. It happened about 20 kilometres north of where the Cheakamus converges with the Squamish River at Brackendale Park, killing nearly the entire stock of coho and steelhead and much of the chinook and pink salmon. But chum were spared because they had not yet returned to the region to spawn. The Cheakamus is a swift-flowing river, and soda is not a lingering chemical, so two days later, there was little trace of the accident. The full regeneration of the affected fish stocks, however, will take decades and cost millions of dollars. The provincial government has imposed an angling ban in the region to protect returning adult fish and will collect fish from unaffected parts of the Cheakamus to help revive the stocks.