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Whitefish River Drained for BNSF Cleanup

By Beacon Staff

A section of the Whitefish River has gone dry. And when the water returns, it will have a much cleaner home.

Construction crews have re-routed a dammed-off portion of the Whitefish River as part of a cleanup process mandated by the Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA is requiring Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway to remove sediments contaminated by petroleum-based products in the river near the rail company’s fueling facility.

The river draining – between the fueling facility and just below the Second Street Bridge – is part of the river cleanup’s Phase II. During last year’s Phase I, crews cleaned out about 3,000 cubic yards of contaminated sediments farther upstream near the fueling facility, said Jennifer Chergo, spokesperson for EPA’s Region 8.

Chergo said Phase II will remove 10,000 cubic yards of sediments from a total of 2,100 feet of river – 1,200 feet downstream of the fueling facility and about another 900 feet upstream. Crews began assembling the portable dams and piping system in late July in preparation for the river draining.

Phase II will be wrapped up before it gets too cold, perhaps by October, said Karin Hilding, senior project engineer for the city of Whitefish. BNSF is responsible for the cleanup and the EPA is overseeing the process, but both parties have kept in contact with Hilding’s office.

Hilding said last year’s cleanup was a pilot project and, while effective, disturbed more of the area’s habitat than is expected of Phase II. Any disturbed habitat is restored. Kennedy/Jenks is in charge of design and planning for the current project, and Sandry Construction is heading up construction.

“They learned quite a bit from Phase I,” Hilding said. “They learned they were going to do it differently. This phase will cause very little disturbance.”

Soil removal was expected to begin after Labor Day, Chergo said. During the removal process, sludge is sucked out of the river bottom’s top layer and then stored on BNSF property, where it is mixed with a neutralizing lime substance and allowed to dry. From there, Chergo said, it’s hauled by rail to a facility in North Dakota.

While it takes only about 24 hours to remove soil from the river, Chergo said the drying process takes a longer – unspecified – amount of time. The riverbed is lined with rocks, Hilding said, which over time are filled in with sediment as the river washes over. The water, Hilding said, is filtered before it returns to the dammed-off area.

“It goes through an intense filtration process and then clean water goes back into the river,” Hilding said.

The final phase of the cleanup project will occur next year, focusing on the river downstream of Second Street Bridge to around J.P. Road. That stretch of river has considerably less contamination than closer to the fueling facility, Hilding said. In total, Chergo said about two-and-a-half miles of river will be cleaned.

The Whitefish River, a popular recreation spot, begins at Whitefish Lake, flows through town and eventually joins the Flathead River. In August of 2007, the EPA was notified of an oily sheen reportedly seen on the river. The EPA launched an investigation that year and then another one in 2008.

The investigations found petroleum-based products such as diesel and bunker C fuel in the water. The source, the EPA concluded, was BNSF. Citing the Oil Pollution Act, EPA officials ordered BNSF to remove large amounts of contaminated sediments from the river.

Chergo said the EPA has “worked in total cooperation with the Montana Department of Environmental Quality,” which has also been conducting its own separate review to see what kind of cleanup may be necessary at the actual fueling facility.

Matthew Kent, project officer for the BNSF Whitefish facility state Superfund site, said his agency should complete its review within weeks and submit a comment letter to BNSF. The rail company will then address the agency’s comments.

Eventually, a feasibility study will follow, Kent said. Then the agency will make a determination on what “remedies should be applied.” Kent said the whole process could be lengthy.

“It would be difficult to give an exact time,” he said. “But taking it all the way through remedy would take years.”