Rail yard cleanup still years out

Cleanup of a state Superfund site on BNSF Railway property in Whitefish is still a few years away, the state Department of Environmental Quality says.

BNSF is currently working with DEQ on a cleanup plan for the site that is contaminated due to spills and leaks at locomotive fueling facilities. Oily discharges to wastewater lagoons also have caused soil and shallow groundwater contamination.

“The last two years we’ve really moved along,” said Jessica Gutting Smith, project officer with DEQ. “Now that we’re working on the risk assessment it will start moving into the cleanup phase and the end result.”

DEQ held a public meeting last week in Whitefish to give an update on the railway property, the Whitefish River cleanup and vapor intrusion samples.

A human health risk assessment work plan for the facility is underway and is expected to be completed early next year, according Gutting Smith. BNSF will develop a feasibility study for cleanup options.

Once the study is completed, DEQ will identify its preferred final cleanup plan and publish it for public comment, which is expected in 2017. Following the final decision, BNSF will implement the cleanup.

The Superfund site is listed as a high priority site on the Montana Comprehensive Environmental Cleanup and Responsibility Act Priority List.

The 78-acre locomotive fueling and repair facility has been in operation since 1903. The facility has three separate fueling areas — a freight fueling area west of the overpass and two Amtrak passenger fueling areas east of the overpass. The passenger fueling areas have not been used since the mid-1980s, but the freight fueling is still active. There are three underground petroleum plumes in the same location as the fueling sites.

Historically, a power house was on site. Three lagoons collect oily wastewater at the roundhouse.

Releases associated with fueling, repair, railroad operations, and wastewater transportation to the lagoons have resulted in soil and groundwater contamination of petroleum products, a coolant, a degreaser and heavy metals.

“Anywhere there is contamination is the Superfund site,” Gutting Smith said. “It’s not necessarily that they are over screening levels. We’ve just had to test those areas.”

Remedial investigation began on the site in 1990 and continued until 2000 when DEQ asked BNSF for more investigation that continued until 2012. Soil and groundwater samples were collected in both phases.

Gutting Smith likens the remedial investigation process to creating the blueprints to construct a house.

“We needed that blueprint to determine where the contamination was, what the extent of the contamination was, and also the areas where contamination was not,” she said.

Martin City resident Bill Baum said the cleanup isn’t happening fast enough.

“The chemicals aren’t good for the human body — none of them grow on trees,” he said. “Are the people doing the screening willing to transfer here and drink the water and bath in the water? Time is of the essence.”

Gutting Smith said the contamination poses little risk to most residents because it is largely confined to the rail yard.

“Most of the contamination we’re seeing is right above or below the groundwater table,” she said. “It’s not likely — because residents use city water — that they would come into contact with contamination.”

BNSF continues to conduct groundwater monitoring across the site. Free product recovery has been ongoing since the installation of the interceptor trench and microwells. Since 1991, about 15,000 gallons of free product have been recovered from the trench and 743 gallons have been recovered from recovery wells.

BNSF in 2005 also removed 16 cubic yards of contaminated soil west of the roundhouse.

In 2013, BNSF submitted a proposal to do thermal remediation on an area west of the roundhouse for a chlorinated solvent plume. Investigation showed that the concentration was not enough to justify the expense and time for the thermal remediation, according to Gutting Smith.

“Thermal remediation can only get chlorinated solvents down to a certain concentration and these were already below that level,” she said.

Vapor intrusion samples taken in 2010 around Whitefish to determine if petroleum and solvents in underground soil were releasing vapors into homes through the foundations. Ten structures were sampled.

Gutting Smith said DEQ determined that vapor intrusion was not occurring in any of the structures.

Results from a multi-year cleanup of the Whitefish River show there’s no risk for boating, wading, or eating fish from the river.

“The river is safe,” Gutting Smith said.

River sediments were excavated and dredged between 2009 and 2013.

Biological sampling of the river will continue. DEQ expects an ecological risk assessment of the river to be completed in the fall.

“We will confirm that the river health is returning,” she said. “We want to make sure everything is growing back and improving.”