SOMERS – More than two decades after a railroad tie treatment plant in Somers closed its doors, local residents are still concerned about ground and water contamination. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s cleanup was the subject of a public meeting on Sept. 20.
The EPA’s project manager Diana Hammer presented updated information about the Superfund site and the spread of contaminated groundwater. But during the meeting, longtime Somers residents said some contaminated sites have yet to be cleaned and the EPA needs to do more work.
“I don’t think they will ever get it all, that’s my theory,” said Morey Grove, who lived in Somers from 1946 until 2005.
The 80-acre site near downtown Somers was once home to a railroad tie treatment plant, owned by the Great Northern Railway and established in 1901 and operated until 1986. Today, the land is owned by Great Northern successor BNSF Railway. For nearly a century, the plant produced wooden railroad ties that were coated with creosote to protect the ties from the elements. Other chemicals used in the tie-making process included zinc chloride and petroleum preservative mixtures. After a tie was coated with protective chemicals it was allowed to dry out on a “drip track.” According to an EPA report, the process produced up to 1,000 pounds of sludge every two years that impacted both the soil and groundwater. The contamination was discovered in 1984 and later that year the area was designated an EPA Superfund site.
In 1994, the EPA, DEQ and BNSF contractors began excavating and treating 50,000 cubic yards of soil and the groundwater underneath the site. Soil remediation was completed in 2002. The water treatment system continued to operate until 2007, when the railroad requested that it be turned off. Because the soils are so tight in that area, the groundwater moved very slowly and was hard to treat. Since then, government agencies and the railroad have monitored the water’s condition.
The EPA’s fourth five-year review was released earlier this year and stated that a plume of contaminated groundwater had shifted underneath the town. Hammer said because of that shift, the agencies have decided the original groundwater treatment plan may have been insufficient.
“The groundwater contamination was more extensive than we thought,” Hammer said, adding that additional testing would be needed. “The question we have is was (the contaminated groundwater) there before and did we just not see it?”
Hammer stressed that because the town’s residents get their water from a well, there is no present risk to the public. She said more groundwater test wells would be drilled this fall. Between September 2011 and February 2012, the EPA collected 196 groundwater samples.
The five-year review recommended that agencies monitor vapor intrusion inside buildings in the area; monitor the town’s drinking water; and reevaluate the 1987 Risk Assessment and determine if a new review is needed to meet current environmental standards.
Grove hopes the EPA’s reevaluation of the Somers site includes a more complete look at where creosote and other chemicals were spilled. At the meeting, Grove said there are numerous sites in the area that have not been cleaned up.
Grove worked as a water operator for the town from 1984 until 1992. He said he knew many people who worked at the tie plant who said some chemicals were just dumped on site or burned off.
“There are potential problems,” he said. “(The EPA) hasn’t looked for it all and some (chemicals) are probably still there.”
One of Grove’s biggest concerns was about the zinc chromate that was allegedly used to coat railroad ties in 1941 and 1942, when petroleum was hard to get because of World War II.
Hammer noted many of the sites Grove and other residents mentioned and said the EPA would look into those areas. She said the information they provided was “valuable.”
“The initial intention of this meeting was to share what information we had, so what we heard was a bonus,” she said. “Hearing local stories of how the site was used and operated can lead us to additional sites.”