(The Associated Press circulated the following story on July 6.)
HAVRE, Mont. — Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway has settled the class-action lawsuit that about 80 North Havre residents filed over diesel fuel that leaked from the neighboring rail yard decades ago.
The residents said the diesel fuel and other chemicals seeped under their property, polluted their groundwater, ruined their property values and caused health problems.
The terms of the settlement, filed in federal court in Great Falls Wednesday afternoon, are confidential.
The plaintiffs are very pleased with the settlement, said the residents attorney, Tom Lewis, of Great Falls. It was a long, hard fight.
Railroad officials declined to comment on the settlement.
We have worked with the state on the Havre cleanup situation, and we will continue to work with the state regarding BNSF s responsibility on this matter, spokesman Gus Melonas said from Seattle.
Tests have shown that as much as 1.2 million gallons of diesel fuel leaked or spilled at the Havre rail yard along U.S. 2 between the 1940s and the 1970s. The fuel seeped into the groundwater and washed benzene, toluene and other cancer-causing toxins under North Havre, an unincorporated cluster of small homes and trailers between the rail yard and the Milk River.
Contamination also escaped two lagoons filled with chemicals from the railroad s diesel engine repair shop, according to environmental reports supplied to the state.
Since 1985, the railroad has spent millions of dollars investigating the contamination, most of which occurred before the era of strict environmental laws.
The North Havre residents sought damages for medical monitoring, cleanup, loss of property value and emotional distress, among other things. They hired an environmental firm in 2001 to investigate.
An expert witness for the plaintiffs said their well water is unfit to drink or bathe in and recommended that they be plumbed into a public water system, according to court documents.
Yet the report did not conclusively tie the ailments to diesel contamination. Although some residents complain of a petroleum smell in their tap water, testing has not found toxins in their wells exceeding state and federal limits, said Kate Fry, project officer with the state Department of Environmental Quality in Helena.
A groundwater sample last summer contained vinyl chloride at 35 parts per billion, seven times the allowable limit.
Wells in the area are tested four times a year to make sure toxin levels aren t worsening, she said.
The railroad submitted a work plan to the DEQ last fall to inject sodium lactate into the shallow water table.
An organic carbon source, it would encourage micro-organisms to eat and break down some of the contaminates faster than they would break down naturally.
But the plan needs more study, Fry said.