Electric fence planned for spill

Hungry Horse News

Electric fences will be installed at a train wreck site near the mouth of Bad Rock Canyon to keep bears away from spilled bird seed and molasses.

Two slow-moving trains collided head-on Nov. 25 at about 6:20 a.m., sending two freight cars hurtling down the embankment. Seven engines and two other freight cars derailed.

"What better mixture to attract bears than bird seed and molasses?" said Dan Vincent, director of the Great Northern Environmental Stewardship Area.

GNESA coordinates private and government interests in the railroad corridor between West Glacier and East Glacier.

Randy Wolff, at the Burlington Northern Santa Fe office in Whitefish, said cleanup work on the steep slope above the Flathead River halted last fall when winter weather set in.

"The slope was too steep and too slick to complete the work," said Lane Ross, BNSF's Whitefish trainmaster. "Vacuum lines kept freezing up. It was a very expensive operation."

Ross said Critter Gitters, an electronic device that senses movement and emits an annoying high-pitched noise, will also be installed at the site to frighten away bears.

Vacuum trucks will return to the site in a second try at removing the spilled cargo, he said. In the meantime, mesh barriers have been installed to prevent further movement of the cargo down the steep embankment to the river's edge.

Ross said 36 to 42 trains daily pass the site on the BNSF mainline, forcing cleanup equipment and crews to repeatedly move away from the tracks.

Crews were scheduled to begin installing electric fences at the site March 16, but that evening's snow storm may have delayed work there.

Signs will be put up to warn boaters about electric fences close to the shoreline.

Ross also warned local high school graduates who might head up to paint graffiti on the nearby concrete retaining wall, which is an annual tradition, he said.

The Thanksgiving incident was the third derailment in 2004 along the West Glacier-East Glacier corridor, Wolff said.

A 119-car freight train was hit Jan. 28 by two avalanches west of Marias Pass. Fifteen grain cars immediately derailed, blocking the track.

A westbound freight train derailed April 20 about four miles east of Essex. Twenty-nine of the train's 110 cars jumped the tracks about 11:45 a.m., spilling grain and creating a lengthy cleanup effort.