BNSF consultants explain clean-up plans

Clean-up work on the upper reach of the Whitefish River will have a completely different look this year, as BNSF Railway continues to remove sediments contaminated by diesel spilled at the railroad's locomotive refueling station.

John Norris, of Kennedy/Jenks, BNSF's environmental consultant, joined Environmental Protection Agency officials and other consultants at an open house in the Whitefish Community Center on July 21 to explain the new process for Phase 2 of the river clean-up.

Portable dams will be set up by early August at four locations on the river — one near the former Idaho Timber mill, two below BNSF's roundhouse and one immediately downstream of the Second Street bridge. The dams are made of a heavy steel framework draped with a durable plastic sheeting that has worked successfully around the U.S. The manufacturers have visited Whitefish and assured BNSF they can work here, Norris said.

The river will be bypassed into three 48-inch plastic pipes that can be moved around as workers remove a foot to three feet of sediment. The river bottom later will be built back up to within 12 inches of its original level, as ordered by the EPA, Norris said. Round river rock will be used, which provides habitat for macroinvertebrates native to the river.

Once the river has been mostly drained, small, lightweight "bulldozers' will push the exposed sediments into depressions in the river bottom, where they will readily dissolve in residual water and be pumped as slurry up to treatment facilities set up just west of BNSF's roundhouse.

Extensive mapping of sediments by core sampling from boats has been done, Norris said. All contaminated sediment was found below the low-water mark, but as clean-up work proceeds, material will be removed from above that mark if ordered by EPA. Extensive cross-sectional topography work also has been done to assist in stream bank restoration.

After the slurry is de-watered, the sediment will be treated with lime and loaded into railroad cars for transportation to an approved site. A flocculating agent will be used to "coagulate" the fine clay particles found in the sediments so they can be more easily filtered out. The water will be treated with 5,000-pound activated-carbon units to remove all petroleum before returning it to the river, Norris said.

Workers will be on site from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. six days a week through Nov. 1 to get the job done before cold weather sets in, Norris said. The contractor ran into trouble last year when winter came a little earlier than expected.

The river will essentially become a construction site, Norris pointed out. Chain-link fencing will be set up at the low-water mark, the BNSF Loop bike path will be closed from Miles Avenue to the trestle, and signs and buoys will warn boaters on the river to stay away. Grates on the bypass inlets and outlets will keep people out but allow fish to pass through.

Restoration planning

EPA on-scene coordinator David Romero explained that last year's clean-up was a "pilot" project. The choice to use a cofferdam was BNSF's, and EPA agreed so the railroad could get started on its learning curve for the much larger clean-up effort.

Norris concurred. BNSF opted to limit its initial project footprint by blocking only half the river channel and using heavy equipment, like excavators and cranes, where the pollution was thought to originate. They also learned how to deal with the removed sediments, he said.

The access road and heavy equipment pads established last year near the roundhouse will be used again this year to prevent impacts elsewhere on the river, Norris said. Those impacts, however, have raised concerns by residents, city staff and city councilors who claim an inadequate re-vegetation and restoration plan was established.

Paul Hansen, of Stevensville-based Ecological Solutions Group, who will head up the re-vegetation effort, was brought in by the EPA to answer those concerns. Pre-planted bio-engineered products grown in the Bitterroot Valley with site-specific, native plants will be used to prevent disturbed stream banks from eroding into the river, he explained at the July 21 open house.

The diverse species to be planted are held together in rolled sod and fiber roll products using "coir" — a woven matting made from coconut fiber that will last 8-10 years, Hansen said. The products have been tested and approved by the Army Corps of Engineers.

Five different products have been developed specifically for the Whitefish River, from the rolled coir, sandbar willow log that will anchor the toe of the bank to other "treatments' designed for steep slopes, flatter areas, wet or dry ground, and floodplain areas such as oxbows.

By planting in the fall, when the river is at its lowest, roots will continue to grow and harden through winter, producing nine months of growth before high water comes next June, Hansen said. Stream flow in the Whitefish River is much slower than in other rivers where these techniques have performed well. The recommended products cost more but have a good track record, he said.

What's next?

The third phase of the river clean-up will take place next year from the Second St. bridge to the JP Road bridge. Because contaminated sediments in that river section are believed to exist in patches — at the Riverside Park footbridge and the Columbia Avenue bridge, for example — BNSF might consider using a barge-mounted suction dredge to suck up the sediments, rather than digging them up, Norris said. But no definite plans exist at this time, he noted.

The Phase 2 clean-up could benefit two future transportation projects. The Second Street bridge is slated for replacement as part of the U.S. 93 West reconstruction project. Norris said that even though little sedimentation is found immediately around the bridge structure, eliminating potential contamination will help the bridge project.

The city's Parks Board and Pedestrian and Bike Trails Advisory Committee both see the clean-up project as an opportunity to get work done on a bike path proposed to run along the east side of the river north toward Miles Avenue. The city has only six feet of bank to work with below the condominiums that overlook the river at that location, bike-path committee member Don Spivey explained.

The plan all along has been to put helical piers in the river bottom to support a boardwalk. Having the river drained could make that work much easier, but detailed plans for the boardwalk and the rest of the trail have not been completed. Total funding for the trail segment is also not available right now, Spivey said.

Meanwhile, the city council has expressed interest in getting BNSF to clean up the locomotive refueling site, a state Superfund site that is the source of the river contamination. More than 100,000 gallons of spilled diesel is believed to be underground there.

During the council's July 19 meeting, mayor Mike Jenson acknowledged that last year's bore-hole tests indicate the underground diesel plumes have not spread into the Railway District neighborhood, but he still wanted to ask the state Department of Environmental Quality and Gov. Brian Schweitzer to get the refueling site cleaned up.

Other councilors expressed support, but councilor Turner Askew suggested going to BNSF first so as not to appear confrontational. Councilor Phil Mitchell agreed with Askew, and councilor Bill Kahle noted that DEQ has its hands full both here in Whitefish and across the state. Councilor Chris Hyatt agreed with Kahle.

Jenson said he intends to wait for an upcoming DEQ report on the Superfund site before acting.