Glacier rejects bombing snow chutes near rail tracks
By CHRIS PETERSON / Hungry Horse News
Glacier National Park has rejected a plan by Burlington Northern Santa Fe that would allow the railroad to blast avalanche chutes inside the Park.
The Park last week released a final environmental impact statement that instead calls for the railroad to build less than a mile of snowsheds in avalanche-prone areas in the John F. Stevens Canyon and would only "grant a permit for emergency explosive use in the event that human lives and or resources are at risk and all other options have been exercised by BNSF."
The area is on the south border of Glacier and is paralleled by U.S. Highway 2.
Snowsheds are man-made wooden tunnels that trains travel under in snow-prone areas. They're designed so that avalanches go over them and don't harm the train or the tracks.
The final document was heralded by the National Park's Conservation Association.
"It's a victory for people who love Glacier National Park and a victory for Park resources," said Will Hammerquist, the director of NPCA's Glacier Field Office. "Bombing isn't the way to deal with avalanche control."
The Park received some 13,000 comments on the plan, most of which supported the railroad building more snowsheds. Many letter writers noted that the railroad's profits, which have in the hundreds of millions of dollars each quarter.
By contrast, the cost of snowsheds, amortized over 50 years, would be about $5 million annually, the Park estimated. Using BNSF's own numbers, Park officials estimated that it costs about $20,000 to $25,000 a foot to build more snowsheds.
BNSF claimed that its request to use explosives was being blown out of proportion.
ONE ALTERNATIVE CONSIDERED was to allow the railroad a special use permit for permanent explosive control of avalanches in the area and just extend two existing snowsheds a total of 250 feet.
The Park rejected this alternative, but BNSF claimed the alternative mischaracterized what it was trying to do.
It claimed the Park's analysis "significantly overstated the number of blasts that would be used, substantially limiting the utility of any comparative analysis of the alternatives," wrote BNSF Vice President David L. Freeman in January 2007.
The railroad went on to note that in a 2004 incident where avalanches blocked the tracks in the Canyon it only used 10 explosives, but the Park's analysis estimated using hundreds.
The Park said the numbers were based on a report that BNSF itself commissioned that estimated the number of charges per year would be in the 150- to 200-round range. The Park noted that BNSF could have changed its numbers anytime during the process, but chose not to.
But BNSF had its supporters. Several local Republican legislators favored BNSF's blasting plan, including Montana state Sen. Greg Barkus, who claimed snowsheds are "unsightly and expensive and would pose unreasonable requirements on (BNSF)."
THE DEBATE OVER avalanche control has gone on for years. Glacier first started the process in 2005, then BNSF actually withdrew from the process in 2007 and the draft environmental impact statement was held up in the Park Service's Washington office for months before being released virtually unchanged from the original last week.
NPCA also filed a freedom of information request on the draft when it was held up in Washington.
Hammerquist commended Park staff.
"I think Park staff did a great job on the process," he said.
The environmental impact statement cost about $500,000 and the railroad paid for about half of it.
Even with the document completed, the railroad is under no obligation to build any new snowsheds — its tracks are outside the Park boundaries. The document is a recommendation only.
BNSF is uncommitted.
"This matter is under review," said BNSF spokesman Gus Melonas Monday.