BNSF consultants explain clean-up plans n Whitefish, Mont.

Written by jrood

Clean-up work on the upper reach of the Whitefish River will have a completely different look this year, as BNSF continues to remove sediments contaminated by diesel spilled at the railroad's locomotive refueling station, the Whitefish Pilot reports.

John Norris, of Kennedy/Jenks,
BNSF’s environmental consultant, joined Environmental Protection Agency
officials and other consultants at an open house in the Whitefish Community
Center on July 21 to explain the new process for Phase 2 of the river clean-up.

Portable dams will be set
up by early August at four locations on the river – one near the former Idaho
Timber mill, two below BNSF’s roundhouse and one immediately downstream of the
Second Street bridge. The dams are made of a heavy steel framework draped with
a durable plastic sheeting that has worked successfully around the U.S. The
manufacturers have visited Whitefish and assured BNSF they can work here,
Norris said.

The river will be
bypassed into three 48-inch plastic pipes that can be moved around as workers
remove a foot to three feet of sediment. The river bottom later will be built
back up to within 12 inches of its original level, as ordered by the EPA,
Norris said. Round river rock will be used, which provides habitat for
macroinvertebrates native to the river.

Once the river has been
mostly drained, small, lightweight "bulldozers’ will push the exposed
sediments into depressions in the river bottom, where they will readily
dissolve in residual water and be pumped as slurry up to treatment facilities
set up just west of BNSF’s roundhouse.

Extensive mapping of
sediments by core sampling from boats has been done, Norris said. All
contaminated sediment was found below the low-water mark, but as clean-up work
proceeds, material will be removed from above that mark if ordered by EPA.
Extensive cross-sectional topography work also has been done to assist in
stream bank restoration.

After the slurry is
de-watered, the sediment will be treated with lime and loaded into railroad
cars for transportation to an approved site. A flocculating agent will be used
to "coagulate" the fine clay particles found in the sediments so they
can be more easily filtered out. The water will be treated with 5,000-pound
activated-carbon units to remove all petroleum before returning it to the
river, Norris said.

Workers will be on site
from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. six days a week through Nov. 1 to get the job done before
cold weather sets in, Norris said. The contractor ran into trouble last year
when winter came a little earlier than expected.

The river will
essentially become a construction site, Norris pointed out. Chain-link fencing
will be set up at the low-water mark, the BNSF Loop bike path will be closed
from Miles Avenue to the trestle, and signs and buoys will warn boaters on the
river to stay away. Grates on the bypass inlets and outlets will keep people
out but allow fish to pass through.

EPA on-scene coordinator
David Romero explained that last year’s clean-up was a "pilot" project.
The choice to use a cofferdam was BNSF’s, and EPA agreed so the railroad could
get started on its learning curve for the much larger clean-up effort.

Norris concurred. BNSF
opted to limit its initial project footprint by blocking only half the river
channel and using heavy equipment, like excavators and cranes, where the
pollution was thought to originate. They also learned how to deal with the
removed sediments, he said.

The access road and heavy
equipment pads established last year near the roundhouse will be used again
this year to prevent impacts elsewhere on the river, Norris said. Those
impacts, however, have raised concerns by residents, city staff and city
councilors who claim an inadequate re-vegetation and restoration plan was
established.

Paul Hansen, of
Stevensville-based Ecological Solutions Group, who will head up the
re-vegetation effort, was brought in by the EPA to answer those concerns.
Pre-planted bio-engineered products grown in the Bitterroot Valley with site-specific,
native plants will be used to prevent disturbed stream banks from eroding into
the river, he explained at the July 21 open house.

The diverse species to be
planted are held together in rolled sod and fiber roll products using
"coir" – a woven matting made from coconut fiber that will last 8-10
years, Hansen said. The products have been tested and approved by the Army
Corps of Engineers.

Five different products
have been developed specifically for the Whitefish River, from the rolled coir,
sandbar willow log that will anchor the toe of the bank to other
"treatments’ designed for steep slopes, flatter areas, wet or dry ground,
and floodplain areas such as oxbows.

By planting in the fall,
when the river is at its lowest, roots will continue to grow and harden through
winter, producing nine months of growth before high water comes next June,
Hansen said. Stream flow in the Whitefish River is much slower than in other
rivers where these techniques have performed well. The recommended products
cost more but have a good track record, he said.

The third phase of the
river clean-up will take place next year from the Second St. bridge to the JP
Road bridge. Because contaminated sediments in that river section are believed
to exist in patches – at the Riverside Park footbridge and the Columbia Avenue
bridge, for example – BNSF might consider using a barge-mounted suction dredge
to suck up the sediments, rather than digging them up, Norris said. But no
definite plans exist at this time, he noted.

Meanwhile, the city
council has expressed interest in getting BNSF to clean up the locomotive
refueling site, a state Superfund site that is the source of the river
contamination. More than 100,000 gallons of spilled diesel is believed to be
underground there.

During the council’s July
19 meeting, mayor Mike Jenson acknowledged that last year’s bore-hole tests
indicate the underground diesel plumes have not spread into the Railway
District neighborhood, but he still wanted to ask the state Department of
Environmental Quality and Gov. Brian Schweitzer to get the refueling site
cleaned up.

Other councilors
expressed support, but councilor Turner Askew suggested going to BNSF first so
as not to appear confrontational. Councilor Phil Mitchell agreed with Askew,
and councilor Bill Kahle noted that DEQ has its hands full both here in
Whitefish and across the state. Councilor Chris Hyatt agreed with Kahle. Jenson
said he intends to wait for an upcoming DEQ report on the Superfund site before
acting.

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