(The Idaho State Journal published the following story by Zach Wesley on its website on October 4.)
POCATELLO, Idaho — A Union Pacific spokesman said Friday the railroad has reached an agreement with the City of Pocatello to replace City Well 30, which is threatened by contamination. A new well is likely to be drilled by the city at Rainey Park, near the south edge of the city.
John Bromley, a UP spokesman, said the railroad would make one lump sum payment to the city. He called the payment substantial, but was unable to comment on a dollar amount for the contract or other specifics.
Well 30, a major water source for Pocatello, is located near a UP fueling facility where five decades of diesel fuel leakage threaten to contaminate the water.
After the diesel leakage was discovered, UP entered into a Corrective Action Plan with the Department of Environmental Quality. Part of the CAP includes replacing Well 30.
City officials were unavailable for comment on the agreement Friday.
The DEQ has set Wednesday as the deadline for a signed agreement, said Doug Tanner, DEQ Environmental Manager. If the agreement is not received, UP is still responsible for its original commitments.
“As far as we are concerned, it will be signed immediately,” Bromley said.
Originally, UP was going to replace the well. However, when a previous contaminant in the area proposed for the new well at Rainey Park was brought to their attention the railroad started seeking alternatives.
Those alternatives included building a permanent filtration system for Well 30.
Maintaining the filtration system would have been costly to the city and UP.
“We are not in the water treatment business,” Bromley said. “And the city is. It makes more sense for them to do it.”
One concern about the agreement was how long it would take for the city to transfer water rights from Well 30 to the proposed Rainey Park well.
Ron Carlson, regional manger for the Department of Water Resources, to whom the city will have to submit paperwork in order to transfer water rights, said the transfer will take from 60 to 90 days after the paperwork has been filed.
“I don’t know that the water right issues are all that complicated. The bigger issue is what the city and Union Pacific want to do with the contamination of Well 30,” Carlson said.
Carlson said paperwork has not been submitted yet, but he has been in contact with the city, UP and the DEQ.
“If the agreement goes as we anticipate,” Bromley said, “we’ll have the city the money and maintain the clean-up agreement by the railroad site.”