Whitefish railyard clean-up still years away
Cleanup of the BNSF Railway property near downtown Whitefish is still a few years away, the state Department of Environmental Quality told the public on March 12.
BNSF is currently working with DEQ on a clean-up plan for the Superfund 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 Smith, project officer with DEQ. “Now that we’re working on the risk assessment, it will start moving into the clean-up phase and the end result.”
A human health risk assessment work plan for the facility is underway and is expected to be completed early next year, Smith said. BNSF will develop a feasibility study for clean-up options.
Once the study is completed, DEQ will identify its preferred final clean-up plan and release it for public comment, which is expected in 2017. Following the final decision, BNSF will implement the clean-up.
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 use since 1903. The facility has a freight fueling area west of the viaduct and two Amtrak passenger fueling areas east of the viaduct. The passenger fueling areas have not been used since the mid-1980s, but the freight fueling is still active. Three underground petroleum plumes originate from the fueling sites.
Releases associated with fueling, repair, railroad operations, and wastewater transportation to the lagoons have resulted in soil and groundwater contamination of petroleum products, coolant, degreaser and heavy metals.
“Anywhere there is contamination is the Superfund site,” Smith said. “It’s not necessarily that they are over screening levels. We’ve just had to test those areas.”
Remedial investigation began at the site in 1990 and continued until 2000, when DEQ asked BNSF for more investigation, which continued until 2012. Soil and groundwater samples were collected in both phases.
Smith said the contamination poses little risk to most residents because it’s largely confined to the railyard.
“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.
In 2005, BNSF removed 16 cubic yards of contaminated soil west of the roundhouse. In 2013, the company submitted a proposal to use thermal remediation on an area west of the roundhouse to address a chlorinated solvent plume. Investigation showed that the concentration was not enough to justify the expense and time for the thermal remediation, Smith said.
“Thermal remediation can only get chlorinated solvents down to a certain concentration, and these were already below that level,” she said.
Vapor intrusion samples were collected around Whitefish in 2010 to determine if petroleum and solvents in underground soil were releasing vapors into homes through the foundations. Ten structures were sampled, and DEQ determined that vapor intrusion was not occurring in any of the structures, Smith said.
Sediments in the Whitefish River were excavated and dredged between 2009 and 2013. Results show there’s no risk for boating, wading, or eating fish from the river.
“The river is safe,” Smith said.
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,” Smith said. “We want to make sure everything is growing back and improving.”