Kalispell industrial cleanup moves ahead
A trio of former industrial sites near Kalispell could soon be available for redevelopment, thanks to progress in cleaning up their soil.
On Wednesday, the Montana Department of Environmental Quality announced that it had completed work to address soil pollution at the Kalispell Pole and Timber company, the Reliance Refinery and the Yale Oil facility, collectively known as the KRY Site.
These locations, totaling 44.5 acres in size, produced oil and wood products from the 1920s through the 1990s, leaching industrial chemicals into the soil and groundwater. KRY was declared a state Superfund site in 2008, prompting an effort by BNSF Railway, which owns most of the site, to remediate it under state supervision.
A key component of this project was detoxifying the soil, removing lead-tainted dirt, petroleum sludge, and other contaminants. In a press release Wednesday, the Department declared these steps complete.
“These institutional controls are always a big deal for Montana, especially when we’ve reached a point of redevelopment,” said deputy director George Mathieus. “This was a highly contaminated site that now has the potential to be of economic benefit to the community.”
The area isn’t entirely back to health. Its groundwater is still being remediated, and project officer Hannah McDermott said that it could take as long as 50 years before it meets the department’s standards for cleanliness.
Decisions about using the property will fall to BNSF and the five other entities that own parts of the site. Redevelopment will have to follow “institutional controls,” measures taken to safeguard the remediation work. For instance, McDermott said that no wells will be permitted because of its still-toxic groundwater.
The project’s cost is not publically available. Ross Lane, the railway’s regional director for public affairs, said in an email that “BNSF has made a significant financial investment in the cleanup at KRY, and is pleased that the remediation is progressing.”
Reporter Patrick Reilly can be reached at preilly@dailyinterlake.com, or at 758-4407.