(The Associated Press circulated the following article by John K. Wiley on February 24.)
COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho — The Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway Co. must temporarily stop using its new refueling depot, a judge ruled yesterday, saying a fuel leak could potentially harm human health.
The depot sits atop the region’s sole source of drinking water. Since it opened in September, it twice has leaked petroleum-contaminated wastewater.
First District Judge Charles Hosack granted the state’s request for an emergency order, but allowed the railroad 24 hours to continue to fuel trains that were already en route to the depot.
Idaho’s Department of Environmental Quality had requested the shutdown, saying leaks from the facility threatened the underground aquifer that serves about 400,000 people in the Spokane and Coeur d’Alene areas.
BNSF will comply with the order, railroad spokesman Gus Melonas said late yesterday in a statement, adding the company would immediately begin to implement a contingency plan.
Hosack scheduled a hearing on a longer injunction for next Wednesday, but noted the railroad could seek an earlier hearing to try to prove the order “unduly” interfered with interstate commerce.
He also said the railroad would have to prove the depot doesn’t leak.
Rusty Robnett, a Coeur d’Alene lawyer representing the railroad, argued Hosack lacked jurisdiction because the federal Surface Transportation Board oversees railroad activities.
But Hosack ruled that local public health issues and the potential emergency nature of diesel fuel contaminating the region’s sole source of drinking water trumped the federal agency.
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Idaho Assistant Attorney General Garrick Baxter argued in court that previous leaks have caused the state to be wary of railroad claims that the contamination has not escaped.
The railroad reported in December that fuel-contaminated water, which leaked from a broken wastewater transfer pipe, had reached the aquifer about 160 feet below.
On Feb. 14, the railroad disclosed that cracks in concrete under the main refueling platform had compromised the first layer of protection, Baxter said. Several days later, the railroad found fuel contamination in a sump below a second, plastic containment barrier, he said.
The state fears that petroleum is either resting on a third, final plastic barrier or has even gotten through it, Baxter said.
“I think the court would find we have an unknown based upon the alleged breach,” the judge said in granting the motion, noting that tests on the extent of the latest leak were inconclusive.
The railroad has begun drilling to determine more precisely the extent of the leak, but the results won’t be known until the end of this week or later, Baxter said.
“BNSF continues to test the entire facility to ensure that the environment is not threatened,” Melonas said, adding that specialists were repairing problems found so far.
The refueling depot was designed to reduce congestion at the railroad’s depot near Seattle.
Environmentalists opposed the depot because of its location above the Spokane Valley-Rathrum Prairie Aquifer. Government officials in Idaho approved the depot after being assured it would not leak.
“We’re very pleased the public has received a temporary reprieve. Their aquifer is, at this moment, more protected than it was,” said Barry Rosenberg of the Kootenai Environmental Alliance.
Rosenberg suggested the depot be moved if it cannot be made leak-proof.