(The following article by Frank Zoretich was posted on the Albuquerque Tribune website on September 30.)
ALBUQUERQUE –The Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway will clean up an Environmental Protection Agency Superfund site in the South Valley.
The EPA’s estimate of the cleanup cost: $64 million.
“We have reserved enough money to clean up the site in accordance with the consent decree,” said Richard Russack, vice president of corporate relations for BNSF. “Our intent is to accomplish the task.”
Russack added that the final long-term cost of the cleanup might be less than the EPA estimate.
The proposed settlement agreement was announced Wednesday. It involves cleaning the site of a wood treatment plant that was operated from 1908 to 1972 at 3300 Second St. S.W. by the railroad’s predecessor company, the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway.
Operation of an AT&SF railroad tie treatment plant at the site “resulted in contamination of soil and groundwater with creosote and other contaminants,” the EPA said. The plant was dismantled in 1972.
“This exceptional settlement will provide the necessary money and work commitments to allow the citizens of Albuquerque to live with the peace of mind that this site will be cleaned up,” said Thomas Sansonetti, assistant attorney general for the Environment and Natural Resources Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, in the news release announcing the settlement.
The announcement was issued jointly by the Department of the Interior and the state of New Mexico, in addition to the EPA and the Department of Justice.
Terms of the settlement agreement are included in two consent decrees:
BNSF will clean up remaining soil and groundwater contamination at the site, according to a plan specified by the EPA two years ago.
BNSF will also reimburse the EPA for past costs of about $320,000 and to pay future costs incurred by the EPA and New Mexico in connection with the cleanup.
BNSF will pay the Department of the Interior and the state a total of $1.1 million for migratory bird habitat and groundwater resources injured by the release of contaminants at the site.
About $400,000 of that will go to the Interior Department for habitat restoration projects, about $655,000 will be used by the state for groundwater restoration, and about $45,000 will go to the state and Department of the Interior and to reimburse the costs of assessing damage to natural resources.
The announcement says the consent decrees “also resolve BNSF’s claims that the federal government is partially responsible for site cleanup due to alleged federal control of the facility in aid of war efforts during World War I.”
Those claims will be resolved by the federal government paying the company $600,000.
Jim Baca, the state natural resource trustee, said the $1.1 million paid by BNSF under the second consent decree does not have to be applied entirely to the Superfund site, but could be used by the state and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to restore wildlife habitat and groundwater resources in other nearby areas.
For example, Baca said, some of the money could be used to remove water-guzzling salt cedar from more areas in the Rio Grande bosque and to restore nearby wetland areas.