(The Associated Press circulated the following article on March 8.)
HAVRE, Mont. — Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway has bought 15 properties in North Havre and has first rights to buy another 60, most of them from residents who settled a lawsuit with the railroad over contaminated groundwater.
Terms of that July settlement are confidential, and neither BNSF nor the landowners would confirm whether the purchase agreements are part of that settlement.
About 80 North Havre residents sued the railroad, contending that diesel fuel and other chemicals seeped under their property, polluted their groundwater, ruined their property values and caused a variety of health problems.
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. Highway 2 between the 1940s and 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 Aug. 18, BNSF has purchased 15 properties in North Havre. Of those, nine were from people who had right of first purchase agreements with the railroad.
Venise Rosenberry sold four lots she owned in North Havre to BNSF on Dec. 11. She said she was glad to be rid of the property and was satisfied with the sale to BNSF.
Rosenberry did not live on the property. She said she had planned to make improvements, but the contaminated water under it made that impracticable.