Page 7 - Flathead Beacon // 4.30.14

FLATHEADBEACON.COM NEWS
APRIL 30, 2014 | 7

BNSF Railway’s
former tie treating
plant in Somers.
pardon
COURTESY MONTANA DEPARTMENT OF
ENVIRONMENTAL EQUALITY

Our

dust

Residents Near Contaminated

BNSF Site Settle Suit

Company agrees to site since 1984, and BNSF’s work at and in 1984 and later that year the area was
around the historic tie plant will contin- designated an EPA Superfund site.
purchase land, continue
ue, Jones said.
In 1994, the EPA, DEQ and BNSF
cleanup at former tie- The company acknowledges that contractors began excavating and treat-
zinc, petroleum hydrocarbons and poly- ing 50,000 cubic yards of soil and the
treatment plant
nuclear aromatic hydrocarbons have groundwater underneath the site. Soil
been detected in soil and groundwater remediation was completed in 2002 and
on the property and have migrated “to water treatment continued until 2007,
some extent outside BNSF’s property.”
when the railroad requested that the
By TRISTAN SCOTT of the Beacon
EPA project manager Diana Ham- treatment system be turned of. Because

Nearly three decades after the U.S. mer said recent indings have revealed the soils are so dense in that area, the
Environmental Protection Agency des- a large plume of creosote further under- groundwater moved very slowly and was
ignated a contaminated railroad tie- ground than originally thought.
diicult to treat. Since then, government
treating plant near Somers a Superfund Research on the property will con- agencies and the railroad have moni-
site, BNSF Railway has settled an ongo- tinue as EPA oicials determine how tored the water’s condition.
ing lawsuit with landowners living ad- to more thoroughly clean the contami- A 1989 Record of Decision by the
jacent to the 80-acre site near Flathead nated soil and groundwater. The afect- EPA called for treating contaminated

Lake.
ed residents obtain their drinking wa- soil on-site in a land treatment unit and
Although the details of the settle- ter from the city water system, not the constructing and operating a groundwa-
ment are conidential, a spokesman for groundwater.
ter treatment plant. The remedial action
BNSF said the company will purchase The 80-acre site near downtown started in 1991.
most of the plaintifs’ private property Somers was once home to a railroad tie The most recent ive-year review’s
near the site on Somers Road, and will treatment plant. Owned by the Great sampling results have raised questions
continue cleanup eforts that have been Northern Railway, it was established in about how far from the plant the con-
ongoing for two decades.
1901 and operated until 1986. Today, the tamination could have spread.

BNSF and 17 plaintifs resolved the land is owned by Great Northern succes- The case was originally iled by Ka-
lawsuit at a settlement conference ear- sor BNSF Railway.
lispell law irm McGarvey, Heberling,
lier this month in U.S. District Court in For nearly a century, the plant pro- Suyllivan and Lacey in Flathead Coun-
Missoula.
duced wooden railroad ties that were ty District Court on behalf of plaintifs
“BNSF and all plaintifs were able to coated with creosote to protect the ties Richard Ortiz, Alice Enterprises, LLC
resolve the pending litigation at this con- from the elements. Other chemicals and its members Thomas and Sheryl
ference. BNSF can conirm that the res- used in the tie-making process included Abel.

olution includes the acquisition of most zinc chloride and petroleum preserva- The case was then transferred to U.S.
properties owned by plaintifs; however, tive mixtures, according to the EPA and District Court by BNSF under diversity
speciic terms of the settlement are con- the lawsuit, iled in 2009.
jurisdiction and was consolidated to in-
idential,” according to a statement from After a tie was coated with protec- clude plaintifs David Graham, Michael
company spokesman Matt Jones.
tive chemicals it was allowed to dry out Barragan, Pamela Barragan, Barbara
The Somers Tie Plant is a remedia- on a “drip track.” According to an EPA Brown, Kathy Dugre, David Hayes, Deb-
tion site managed by the EPA and the report, the process produced up to 1,000 orah Hayes, Michael Michaelis, Melissa
Montana Department of Environmental pounds of sludge every two years that Michaelis, Mark Blasdel, Alice Blasdel,

www.ThreeRiversBankMontana.com
Quality. BNSF and its predecessors have impacted both the soil and groundwa- Robert Lincoln and Beth Lincoln.
been investigating and remediating the
ter. The contamination was discovered
[email protected]