Erosion control work to begin on north shore

Ongoing erosion that’s eating away the north shore of Flathead Lake at a pace of 4 to 6 feet a year has prompted state and federal oversight agencies and property owner BNSF Railway to develop a stabilization plan that will commence later this month year at the former railroad tie plant in Somers.

The key objective is to take immediate corrective action to prevent creosote from a swamp pond on the property from getting into the lake. BNSF’s portion of the shoreline has retreated up to 125 feet in some areas, and now, less than 15 feet separates the swamp pond, a historic creosote-laden holding pond for tie-plant wastewater, from the lake.

Roger Hoogerheide, project manager with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — accompanied by a string of state officials, BNSF representatives and conservation group stakeholders — explained the project to the Flathead County commissioners on Tuesday.

The plan is to add an offshore gravel beach and restore the emergent wetlands along 250 feet of BNSF property. To do that, about 1,400 cubic yards of material and over 1,000 plantings will be trucked to the site, with a scheduled start date of March 19, Hoogerheide said.

Because it’s a Superfund site, BNSF isn’t required to go through the county’s permitting process for lakeshore applications. The project only has to meet the substantive requirements of the permit process under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, Hoogerheide said.

The commissioners strongly reprimanded the government agencies and BNSF for not bringing the county and the public into the planning process for the shoreline stabilization project.

“I’m really disgusted that a process [of involving the public] is not followed here by a government agency whose sole responsibility is to be responsible to the public,” Commissioner Gary Krueger said. “I think this process is flawed.”

The EPA mailed a fact sheet about the stabilization project to surrounding property owners on Feb. 22, alerting them of the Feb. 27 community meeting with the commissioners.

All three of the commissioners criticized the EPA and other agencies for the short notification period and lack of communication, but they stopped short of demanding the project be stopped.

Commissioner Phil Mitchell said he was frustrated that they were “stepping on our county without including us in a few meetings … and yet I don’t want creosote coming into Flathead Lake.”

Commissioner Pam Holmquist likewise expressed frustration.

“I’m not going to say today, stop the project. I don’t want to see creosote in the lake,” Holmquist said. “You’re starting in two weeks; how are we to address that? At the end of the day it’s about not polluting Flathead Lake.”

Hoogerheide apologized and said it was an oversight to not include the county in discussions, and added that the corrective action was reviewed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. “They were OK with it,” he said.

Richard Sloan, project officer with the state Department of Environmental Quality, said time is of the essence because officials don’t want to see the site go through another spring runoff season.

“The real issue is time,” Sloan said. “What we do between now and May to protect the swamp pond, we don’t want to see delayed a year … we need to make sure the swamp pond doesn’t get breached.”

The shoreline erosion is exacerbated by the operations of the SKQ Dam, formerly called Kerr Dam.

There was also discussion about how neighboring property owners have been affected by earlier erosion protections put in place through the EPA’s cleanup plan and record of decision in 1989.

The tie plant operated from 1901 to 1986, and action was taken to restore the property.

Andrew Sliter, whose family corporation is a neighboring property owner, told the commissioners he and his family have had a long-running dialog with the Flathead Land Trust, Flathead Conservation District, Fish, Wildlife and Parks and other stakeholders to come up with a more comprehensive erosion plan for the north shoreline.

Sliter’s sister, Andrea Sliter Goudge, said the family is concerned that BNSF’s proposed shoreline work is “contained solely to the BN property line.” There’s been a difference of opinion, she said, between the corrective action Mark Lorang, a researcher with the University of Montana Flathead Lake Biological Station, has suggested, and what BNSF has proposed, Goudge said, largely involving the size of gravel to be used in the corrective action.

In a nutshell, BNSF plans to use larger rocks for erosion control, while Lorang believes smaller-sized rocks would be more effective.

“What we are concerned about is that the solution proposed won’t protect the remedy because of the wave action,” Goudge said.

Holmquist said she’d like to see BNSF work with Lorang, “who is quite knowledgeable about the north shore of Flathead Lake.

“It’s quite concerning because the continued erosion affects neighboring properties,” she said.

Mitchell also insisted that BNSF work with its neighbors.

“You guys need to be respectful of what you’re doing to neighbors,” Mitchell said. “I think you’re forcing more erosion onto the neighbors’ property. My other frustration is when two professionals can’t come together. Right now I don’t know who to believe.”

BNSF spokesman Matt Jones said the railroad has had conversations with Lorang, the Sliters and Flathead Land Trust to protect the shoreline beyond BNSF’s property, but he added, “from our perspective there’s no longer an interest in that bigger project.”

Other corrective action planned at the site this year includes continued recovery of wood-treating product from the subsurface (over 700 gallons have been collected since 2014); continued monitoring of site groundwater, including the Somer’s drinking water supply well; expanding efforts to introduce air in the subsurface to degrade residual chemicals; and demolition of a water treatment plant and associated infrastructure. That demolition will begin this spring.

Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.