(The following story by Lynnette Hintze appeared on the Daily Inter Lake website on September 27, 2009.)
WHITEFISH, Mont. BNSF Railway Co. will remove roughly 36,000 cubic feet of petroleum-contaminated sediment from the Whitefish River during the first phase of federally mandated cleanup this fall.
The railroad expects to remove sediment about one foot deep from a 36,000-square-foot area on the north side of the upper stretch of the river, above the Second Street Bridge north to the BNSF fueling facility, according to a remedial action work plan completed by Kennedy/Jenks Consultants.
Although there's a long history of petroleum pollution at the rail yard and upper stretch of river longtime residents remember oil fires on the river this particular round of cleanup was spurred by a citizen complaint two years ago of an oily sheen on the river in multiple locations.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency investigated and found bunker fuel oil and weathered diesel fuel.
Staging for the cleanup began Friday and by mid-October that portion of river and the adjacent bike path will be closed to the public through December, EPA spokeswoman Jennifer Chergo said.
"It will impact recreation," she said. "We chose this time of year because of the low [river] flow."
The contaminated soil will be moved to an upland storage area where it will be dried and mixed with quicklime before being loaded into railcars for transport to an offsite disposal facility, according to the work plan for the project.
The river bank and major features, such as logs in the river bottom that are disturbed during construction, will be restored to approximate preconstruction conditions.
"The planned removal work will result in minimal deepening, but will not substantially change the river channel geometry," the work plan stated, noting that the removal work won't substantially change the flow characteristic of the river water.
The EPA is operating under the authority of the 1990 Oil Pollution Act, legislation that strengthened the federal agency's ability to respond to oil spills.
The agency is requiring the railroad to clean about two miles of the Whitefish River, to JP Road, but cleanup could extend even farther, Chergo said.
"As we head that way, we'll sample as we go," she said. "If we see a consistent pattern [of contamination] to keep going, then we will."
Cost of the cleanup has not yet been calculated.
"It's not totally worked out who's paying for what," Chergo said, although a recent EPA press release said the railroad will pay to clean up contamination attributable to BNSF.
The EPA will have two on-scene coordinators, David Romero and Duc Nguyen, overseeing the Whitefish River cleanup.
Matthew Kent, an environmental science specialist with the Montana Department of Environmental Quality, also will make visits to the project site.
Some Whitefish residents have criticized the state for dragging its feet on cleanup through the years.
But Denise Martin, state Department of Environmental Quality Site Response section manager, said not all contamination poses an unacceptable public health risk. Through site-specific risk evaluations, the state determines if the pollution crosses the benchmark of what's acceptable.
The river is not a source for drinking water, but is used heavily for recreation. During the recent Duck Derby fundraiser of the Whitefish Community Foundation, people who waded into the river to collect plastic ducks downstream from the Baker Avenue bridge emerged with their legs coated in black, petroleum-laced muck.
Last year Whitefish Lake Institute Director Mike Koopal brought bottles of gasoline-laced effluent from the river to a City Council meeting. Those were taken from a fuel seep near the Town Pump. Benzene levels in water samples were 39 times the level allowed for drinking water.
Koopal told the council he was frustrated with the state's timeline to mitigate the pollution.
"Part of the blame is the DEQ," Martin admitted. "We've had trouble keeping project officers' and that has hampered both continuity and the momentum of state oversight, he said.
THE FIRST major cleanup of the area began in 1973 when the railroad began recovering free petroleum product from shallow groundwater via an interception trench just above the Whitefish River.
In 1986 the EPA inspected the facility after citizen complaints of an oil sheen on the river, but the agency recommended no further federal action, and the state began overseeing the investigation and cleanup actions at the Whitefish yard. By late 1998 the state issued an administrative order requiring BNSF to complete a remedial investigation work plan for the site. The railroad submitted its draft plan in 2000 and its final plan in 2006.
BNSF investigated further in 2004 and 2005 to address data gaps. The state and railroad have gone back and forth on the investigation, and two years ago BNSF submitted a supplement to its plan that included additional assessment information.
As of September 2008, 15,477 gallons of "free product" had been recovered, the state's timeline noted.
Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by e-mail at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com
Cleanup to be explained at meeting
A public meeting about the Whitefish River cleanup project will be held at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Whitefish Golden Agers Community Center, 121 Second St. in Whitefish.
Federal and state environmental officials will be on hand to answer questions.
