An eye on safety at Hauser, Idaho, refueling station

Written by jrood

With the aim of heightening safety standards, Kootenai County, Idaho, is proposing several permit amendments for the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway refueling station in Hauser, the Coeur d' Alene Press reports. Required by the county commissioners after the station's compliance hearing last December, the amendments would specify when the facility shuts down for a major leak, plus establish new well testing and groundwater monitoring.

"There was dialogue
and discussion during their (the commissioners’) processing of the compliance
review, and the board felt that these were matters that should be
addressed," said Scott Clark, director of the county Building and Planning
Department.

One change the county is proposing
would require the $52-million facility to cease operations during a leak that
compromises at least two of its three containment levels, or that involves
rebuilding structures to address it. Another amendment would call for creating
a groundwater-monitoring plan approved by the Department of Environmental
Quality.

All slant wells would also
have to be maintained and tested annually, and be included in the groundwater
monitoring. A previously temporary condition to fund a staff position for the
DEQ aquifer protection program would also become permanent.

Agencies or members of the
public can also propose new or modified conditions at the scheduled examiner
hearing.

Gus Malones, spokesman for
the railway company based in Ft. Worth, Texas, released a single statement.

"BNSF is not
requesting any permit changes," Malones said. "The conditional use
permit (for the Hauser station) was reviewed in 2009, and all of the agencies
who participated in the review determined that the facility was being operated
in accordance with all the requirements of the conditional use permit, and that
no new conditions were warranted."

Clark said that BNSF is
free to dispute the proposed measures.

"At the examiner
hearing level, any concerns can be raised by the conditional use permit holder
that they wish to address," he said.

Commissioner Rick Currie
said he and the other commissioners could not comment because of the pending
hearing.

Terry Harris with Kootenai
Environmental Alliance said he didn’t know the details of the proposed amendments,
but he approved the safety goals.

"Generally, it’s the
wrong type of facility in the wrong place, putting that amount of risk to the
aquifer," Harris said. "I understand the commissioners gave conditional
approval and required all this monitoring and reporting, and that is making the
best of a bad situation."

The examiner hearing is
scheduled for 6 p.m. on Dec. 2 in the Kootenai County Administration Building.
After the official makes a recommendation, the county commissioners will hold a
hearing and make a decision. The commissioners voted unanimously last year at
the station’s 5-year compliance review that it met all the permit conditions.

The facility has
experienced problems since it was built in 2004, including a leak that extended
to the underlying aquifer months after its construction. The facility was also
shut down by the DEQ in 2005 when diesel was discovered on a liner. Since then,
the railroad has relied on 24-hour computerized leak-detection monitoring, as
well several containment liners to prevent repeat incidents.

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