(The Associated Press circulated the following article on December 4.)
LIVINGSTON, Mont. — BNSF Railway, responsible for diesel pollution here, plans to buy most of a neighborhood that is over a plume of contaminated groundwater, the Bozeman Daily Chronicle reported.
Resident John Bauer said BNSF officials told him the properties are likely to be bulldozed.
BNSF spokesman Gus Melonas confined his response to this prepared statement: “Part of our approach in remediating the Livingston site beyond the rail yard includes exploring properties for possible future purchase to enable BNSF to effectively manage this ongoing environmental process.”
The railroad withdrew from Livingston in 1986, sold its shops in the community and leased its tracks to Montana Rail Link. BNSF remains responsible for pollution here and has been named in pollution-related lawsuits over the past 15 years. Buying property could ease the cleanup and eliminate some potential legal problems.
Bauer and two real estate agents said railroad officials have approached some Livingston residents with offers to buy their property. The railroad has offered 115 percent of appraised value if the owner sells immediately, the Chronicle reported Saturday.
Owners wishing to stay on their land can accept a fee, grant BNSF a right of first refusal and receive the property’s appraised value from BNSF when the owners are ready to sell, according to the newspaper.
“It’s win-win for me,” Bauer said. He operates an automobile repair shop on his property. He also owns a rental house, which he has agreed to sell to BNSF.
The neighborhood near the railroad shops includes about 20 conventional and mobile homes, plus a few businesses.
There are two aspects to the railroad’s pollution problem in the area.
One plume of diesel fuel on groundwater stems from decades of spills and dumping by BNSF and its corporate predecessors. A 2002 water-quality report says that plume extends east of the shops and is less than 1 inch thick in most places, but expands to a thickness of a few inches in others. A second plume has volatile compounds, some federally listed as likely causes of cancer.
Both plumes go beyond railroad property. Jarrett Keck, project manager for the Montana Department of Environmental Quality, said both have been decreasing over time. The 2002 report says about 90 percent of the diesel plume has been removed, some of it mechanically and some through natural degeneration.
In 2001, owners of a neighboring slaughterhouse sued BNSF, alleging its pollution left the slaughterhouse too damaged to use. The railroad bought the property, and the slaughterhouse closed. A minerals company and an excavation business near the rail yards have since filed lawsuits.
On the residential side of the issue, a final round of testing is scheduled this month to check the air in homes and determine whether traces of chemicals could be leaching from the ground.
Discovery of the pollution came in the 1980s when several barrels of BNSF waste were found in the Park County landfill. An investigation revealed contaminated groundwater. Park County sued BNSF and won a $14.7 million judgment for the landfill dumping.