(The following story by Abby Sewell appeared on the Desert Dispatch website on December 8.)
BARSTOW, Calif. — A malfunction in the BNSF Railway wastewater treatment system led to an unknown quantity of partially treated oil sludge being released into the city sewer system and damaging the city’s wastewater treatment plant.
Two of four 18,000-gallon storage tanks used to hold oil sludge at the railyard overflowed due to an equipment malfunction on Thursday, said hazardous materials specialist Greg Zeigler with the San Bernardino County Fire Department hazardous materials division. The cause of the overflow is still unknown, but Zeigler said it was possibly related to a valve malfunction.
An estimated 1,000 gallons of oil sludge overflowed inside the enclosed building where the storage tanks are located, Zeigler said. An unknown additional amount got into the city sewer system and flowed to the city’s wastewater treatment plant. BNSF treats its own petroleum waste, which comes from run-off throughout the rail yard, and then releases the treated wastewater to the city’s treatment plant for a second round of purification.
The oil sludge that made its way to the city’s wastewater treatment plant damaged the headworks, which filters out solid matter from the sewage, and killed biological agents in the tanks used to purify the treated wastewater, city spokesman John Rader said.
The incident did not shut down the wastewater plant completely for any period of time, but the city has had to add new chemicals and biological agents to the wastewater treatment system and is now sampling more frequently to make sure the system is working, he said. The total cost of resolving the issues is not yet known. Rader said BNSF had agreed to take full responsibility for the discharge and is working with the city to make sure the plant resumes normal operations.
The discharge was contained in the plant’s processing tanks and was not released into the groundwater, Rader said. BNSF sent trucks to remove the oil from the tanks.
BNSF spokeswoman Lena Kent said Monday that the cleanup at the BNSF yard was in its final stages.
Because the spill took place inside the BNSF treatment facility, none of the sludge went directly into the ground or storm drains, Zeigler said.
The city is working with BNSF and the Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board to complete the remediation at the wastewater plant, Rader said.
Lahontan representatives could not be reached Monday.