| Saturday, November 21, 2009 |
"How often are new leaks of petroleum products, coolants and other lubricants going to appear?" Lloyd Clapper, president of the Hauser Lake Water Association
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HAUSER, Idaho – After yet another day of pressure to halt refueling operations at its beleaguered depot, BNSF Railway Co. is standing firm.
Continued refueling operations "do not endanger the environment," and there is no evidence of new contamination to the aquifer from a fuel leak reported Monday, according to a letter hand-delivered to Kootenai County commissioners late Thursday afternoon from BNSF executive Mark Stehly.
The Idaho Department of Environmental Quality wants proof. Until it's provided "we must ask that you cease all re-fueling and associated operations at the Hauser facility immediately…" agency head Toni Hardesty wrote Thursday in a letter to BNSF.
At least one of the two buried plastic containment membranes failed to contain diesel that spilled from the fueling platform. County commissioners have asked for the facility to temporarily close until testing assures the integrity of every pipe, plastic membrane and leak-detection system. In December, the railroad discovered fuel-tainted wastewater had been leaking unchecked from a crushed pipe directly into the ground since the depot opened in September.
Choruses of "we told you so," are now emanating from those who fought against the refueling depot being constructed over the region's drinking water supply.
"How often are new leaks of petroleum products, coolants and other lubricants going to appear?" wrote Lloyd Clapper, president of the Hauser Lake Water Association, in a letter Thursday to county commissioners.
Hauser's two wells are about a mile from the depot. Traces of diesel below the human health threshold were detected in the groundwater 160 feet beneath the depot following December's leak, but Hauser's water remains pure, Clapper said. Groundwater flows from below the depot in the direction of the wells at the rate of about 10 feet per day. If any contaminants show up, it would take more than a year, but Hauser recently boosted its regular water testing from once every three months to every week, Clapper said.
Hauser City Councilwoman D.J. Nall said she and others are feeling hopeful that county and state leaders might start paying attention to the community's deep-seated opposition to the depot.
In 2000, Commissioners Dick Panabaker and Dick Compton voted to approve the depot's construction. Commissioner Ron Rankin voted against the project.
None of the commissioners remains in office, but Compton, who many say cast the decisive vote, is now a state senator. BSNF Railway contributed $200 toward his 2004 campaign, according to state records.
Depot opponents were surprised to learn that Compton signed a statement Wednesday supporting a temporary closure of the depot.
"Compton's on the bandwagon," said Barry Rosenberg, director of the Kootenai Environmental Alliance.
Rosenberg was speaking during a meeting of his group focused on boosting protections to the aquifer. The gathering was attended by many longtime opponents of the depot, including Ken Lustig, the retired environmental director of the Panhandle Health District. Lustig had urged county leaders to require the depot to be built in a nearby location not directly above the aquifer.
"Why did they choose to put it here?" Lustig said. "There was a viable alternative. They could have moved it six miles up the track."
Lustig became visibly angry at the mention of Compton's name, saying, "He had the ability to have stopped this dead in its tracks."
When reached Thursday at his office in Boise, Compton said he feels "disappointed as hell," but has no regrets.
"As far as looking back and whipping myself with chains or gouging my eyes, you can't do that," Compton said. "We did everything we possibly could to make sure it would work right. … I think we did due diligence."
Former Commissioner Panabaker also said he has no regrets. County commissioners could not deprive the railroad of its private property rights, he said.
"I don't think anybody wanted it to be over the aquifer. We did the best we could with a tough situation," Panabaker said. "Would I do it again? Yes, I would."
Still, Panabaker knows his decision was not popular. "The thing that I will probably be remembered for is I'm the son of a bitch that OK'd the Burlington Northern depot."
Back at the depot, away from the finger-pointing and hair-pulling, railroad employees and engineering consultants continued to drill for soil samples below the refueling platform Thursday. Samples taken from the first boring "were bone dry, with no detection of either water or any contaminants," according to the letter from BNSF to Kootenai County commissioners. More samples will be gathered from directly under the cracked platform next week, when equipment capable of conducting horizontal drilling arrives at the depot.
Helium gas will be employed today to test the integrity of the pair of plastic liners buried 10 feet below the concrete platform, according to BNSF spokesman Gus Melonas.
The company has ceased refueling operations on the tracks above the current leak. Two sets of tracks and pumps remain in operation, Melonas said.
The depot is an important pit stop for the railroad's transcontinental freight line, company officials said in August during a grand-opening tour of the facility. Instead of the eight hours it takes to unhook a locomotive from its rail cars and fill it with fuel in the company's cramped Seattle yard, the Hauser mainline fueling depot is capable of loading a locomotive with 10,000 gallons of diesel in about 45 minutes.
A vacuum truck is now being used to suction up any water, diesel, oil or coolant spilled during the refueling process, according to the letter sent to county commissioners. "The platform and (drainage) trenches will be kept dry," the letter stated.
Kootenai County Commissioner Rick Currie said the board will meet today to review the letter and formulate a response. No decisions have yet been made, he said. County leaders have previously stated they believe they have the legal authority to close the depot.
IDEQ's Thursday letter to the railroad did not cite any legal authority for its demand that the depot be shut down until proven environmentally safe.
BNSF spokesman Melonas said he was unable to comment when asked if any government entity has the power to shutter the depot.
"The answer seems to call for a legal opinion and I'm not an attorney. However, BNSF has previously said we are closely monitoring the situation and if the facts warrant a cessation, then BNSF would temporarily suspend operations," Melonas said Thursday evening.
"Since today's test borings indicate there was no release below the second layer of containment and since BNSF has already voluntarily suspended operations in the affected areas, we do not think it is necessary or factually warranted for anyone to interfere with the remaining fueling operations on this vital East-West freight corridor."
