SPOKANE -- Fifty rail cars filled with toxic chlorine gas are on their way to the Washington Palouse from British Columbia.

In all more than 4,000 tons of the chemical, produced by BC-based Canexus, will be stored in Belmont, about eight miles south of Oakesdale.

As of Thursday some of those tanker cars were staged in a rail yard in Marshal, about halfway between Spokane and Cheney. Soon those tankers will be moved to Belmont where crews are busy putting up fences to protect the cars from vandalism.

Belmont has several sidings that aren't being used anymore and so the Washington -Idaho Railroad is renting the space to Canexus and that puts the chlorine closer to American cities where it's used to treat drinking water.

The chemicals are also being moved out of British Columbia in advance of the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Whitman County officials think the project is safe and will pump new money into the small railroad that helps Palouse farmers get their crops to market.