SCOTTSBLUFF, Neb. — The Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway Co. will pay a $38,000 fine for shortcomings in the testing of contaminated dirt and the transport of empty tanks after a derailment near Scottsbluff, according to the Omaha World-Herald.
About 400 homes were evacuated after five tanker cars carrying a liquid benzene compound ruptured in the November 2000 derailment. Toxic vapors were emitted, and the soil and groundwater were polluted.
The railroad has been cleaning up the site ever since. Contaminated dirt has been removed, and now work centers on cleaning benzene from the groundwater.
The fine, which is the only one that has been levied since the spill, was announced Friday by the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality. It is for:
— Not determining quickly enough whether the contaminated soil was hazardous. While Burlington Northern took some initial samples of a huge pile of excavated dirt, it had to retest it before officially concluding that it did reach the hazardous threshold.
— Transporting large tanks that were supposed to be empty but still contained a residual amount of contaminated water. The tanks had been used to temporarily store contaminated groundwater that had been extracted and was awaiting disposal.
Benzene is a widely used chemical. Inhaling it can cause drowsiness, dizziness and unconsciousness, according to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. Longer exposure can affect bone marrow and cause anemia and leukemia.
The other contaminant of concern was dicyclopentadiene, a less-common substance that can irritate the respiratory system, cause headaches and, at high levels, lead to convulsions.
Bill Gidley, supervisor of waste management for the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality, said that neither infraction worsened the contamination at the site.
The dirt pile, which contained about 3,000 cubic yards of soil, was stored on top of plastic and covered with plastic, which kept it from polluting the ground. The problem with the tanks was that the proper paperwork was not done when they were shipped back to the contractor that provided them, Clean Harbors Environmental Services at Kimball, Neb.
“We felt it was important to penalize the railroad for not complying with the requirements,” Gidley said, “because that way, they would comply with them the next time it happened.”
Steve Forsberg, general director of public affairs for Burlington Northern, characterized the infractions as “minor” but said the railroad strives to prevent this sort of thing.
Burlington Northern realized as soon as the spill occurred that it was dealing with a hazardous chemical, Forsberg said. Delays in getting the test results, he said, were frustrating.
“It’s our intention to do things right the first time,” Forsberg said. “In the first instance, we weren’t satisfied either with how long it took to do the resampling. In the second case, no one was aware that there was a little bit of ice in the bottom of the tanks.”
Burlington Northern is paying for the cleanup. The money from the fine will go to school districts in Scotts Bluff County.