River to be drained this summer for cleanup
River to be drained this summer for cleanup
The Whitefish Pilot
A section of the White-fish River upstream of the Second Street bridge will be dammed off and dewatered this summer so cleanup crews can proceed with a federally-mandated cleanup.
The Environmental Protection Agency will hold a public meeting on the clean-up project at the Whitefish Community Center (home of the Golden Agers' on Wednesday, July 21, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.
According to EPA Region 8 spokesperson Jennifer Chergo, Phase II of the river cleanup will begin the week of July 26. BNSF Railway, which is responsible for the contamination, will conduct the cleanup with EPA oversight, she said.
The work will involve installing portable dams across the river just downstream of the Second Street bridge, at Kay Beller Park, and near BNSF property, downstream of the railroad trestle.
The river will be routed through three 48-inch pipes between the two dams, allowing the river bed to be exposed. Workers will then remove the contaminated sediments, regrade the river bed to approximate pre-removal shape and slope, stabilize the bank and restore the vegetation.
About 15 private properties are directly adjacent to the Phase II work area, Chergo said. Cleanup work, however, will be conducted primarily in the public domain, below the low-water mark, except at equipment access points and where the portable dams are placed.
Phase II is expected to last three to four months. During this time, the city pedestrian-bike path and river access will be closed from Miles Avenue to the railroad trestle for safety reasons.
The Whitefish River cleanup is being implemented in three phases, Chergo said. Phase I, which lasted from September 2009 to January 2010, focused primarily on the removal of contaminated sediments from a 500-foot stretch of river below the BNSF roundhouse and refueling facility.
About 36,000 cubic feet of sediments were removed last year. Phase I is not completed, she said. BNSF will stabilize the riverbank and revegetate that area during Phase II this year, she said.
Phase III, which is slated to take place in 2011, will involve removing contaminated sediments from areas of the Whitefish River from the Second Street bridge all they way to JP Road.
The cleanup project was initiated after EPA received a report in 2007 of an apparent sheen at several locations on the Whitefish River. EPA investigated and discovered petroleum products contaminating river sediments at several sites along the river. Citing the Oil Pollution Act, EPA ordered a cleanup to remove petroleum contamination from the Whitefish River and to restore it to as close to pre-removal conditions as possible.