Whitefish River cleanup comes to an end

The Whitefish River should soon be free of the cleanup crews that have intermittently closed down the waterway and pedestrian path along the river for the last five years.

“We’re definitely expecting to be finished by our target date,” said Jennifer Chergo with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. “We will be totally off the river by July 4, if not before.”

As of last week, crews had finished excavation of the petroleum-contaminated soils in the river and were about 95 percent complete with backfilling work, Chergo said.

This is the fifth phase of the cleanup that began in 2009. The river is being cleaned up after petroleum products were found in the river sediment at several sites. The EPA ordered BNSF railroad to cleanup the area after contaminated sediment was found on a stretch of the river.

This spring, crews have focused on cleaning more extensively the area of the river between Second Street and Baker Avenue. Some smaller areas downstream of U.S. 93 have also been cleaned.

A total of 2,003 tons of sediment have been removed this year. From Baker Avenue downstream crews have placed about 2,300 tons of soil for backfill into the riverbed.

The total sediment removed during the entire cleanup project is about 26,500 cubic yards.

Chergo said the river and bike path will be totally open for use by July 4. Both have been closed for safety reasons at various times during the cleanup work.

In previous years, work has concentrated only on sediments below the low-water mark in the public domain. However, this year contaminated soils were removed from higher up the bank, between the low- and high-water marks.

Removal of much of the contaminated sediment was completed by using a hydraulic dredge on a barge on the river. More recently crews used an excavator from shore to dig up the sediments.

Chergo said testing has confirmed that all of the areas of the river are now clean.

The cleanup was initiated after the EPA received a report in 2007 of an apparent sheen at several locations along the river. Citing the Oil Pollution Act, EPA ordered BNSF to clean up petroleum contamination from the river and to restore it to as close to pre-removal conditions as possible.

Crews will still have to complete revegitation work along the river. Also included in the revegitation will be the area that was created along Spokane that was used for river access. The revegitation work will likely be done in the fall when conditions are more favorable to plant.

“The river and path should remain open during that and there shouldn’t be any impact,” Chergo said.