BNSF fuel depot leak draws federal attention

The federal government may have cause to get involved in the dispute over closing the BNSF Railway Co. fuel depot if local and state officials aren’t satisfied, Sen. Patty Murray said Monday.

There are federal issues, such as an aquifer that spans two states, questions of interstate commerce and the federal Railroad Act, said Murray, who added her staff is monitoring the controversy over the refueling depot on the Rathdrum Prairie.

Idaho Sen. Larry Craig is also “keeping a close eye” on the controversy after two recent spills at the depot, a spokesman said late last week.

Craig supports the closure requests issued last week by the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality and the Kootenai County commission, said spokesman Mike Tracy. The senator has no plans to intervene unless the railroad rebuffs the demand.

Burlington Northern has not yet responded to a closure demand issued Thursday by Toni Hardesty, Idaho’s director of the Department of Environmental Quality. Hardesty’s Washington counterpart at the Department of Ecology issued a statement Friday supporting the closure order.

The depot, which was described as leak-proof before it opened last September, has reported two leaks. In the most recent case, fuel-tainted wastewater from one of the depot’s three fueling platforms has penetrated at least two of the three barriers designed to protect the aquifer. BNSF officials have shut down that platform, but not the entire facility, saying that keeping it open does not subject the aquifer to further risk.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is also monitoring contamination reports coming from the Hauser, Idaho, refueling depot. On Friday, EPA spokesman Mark MacIntyre said he has been receiving updates every four to six hours from an EPA employee stationed in Coeur d’Alene.

“At this point, our involvement has been pretty much in support of IDEQ,” MacIntyre said. “We haven’t been asked specifically to do anything.”

The EPA’s jurisdiction is “somewhat limited” in the case of the depot, MacIntyre said, but emergency provisions of the Safe Drinking Water Act might be applicable. “So far, those have not been called into play yet.”

Murray spent part of Monday morning talking about transportation issues with agriculture leaders in Spokane, who told her the state’s farmers are hampered by high rail rates and a shortage of railcars, trucks and truckers. It’s easier to ship some farm products like apples to Hong Kong than to ship them to the East Coast, said Mark Powers of the Horticultural Council.

In an interview after the meeting, Murray said the prospect of water contamination from the BNSF depot raises several recurring interstate issues.

“The aquifer doesn’t know state boundaries,” she said.

Federal railroad laws are complicated, Murray added, and she’s not sure yet what Congress might be able to do. But there are federal agencies that could get involved.

“It is something we would take up with the (Bush) administration,” she said.

The Kootenai Environmental Alliance urged Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorne to intervene on Saturday. The governor has so far stayed out of the dispute, although last week a spokesman said he supports the department and the county commission.

“If the local officials feel like it should be shut down, it’s their community,” spokesman Mike Journee said.

The depot continued fueling operations over the weekend on two of its three sets of tracks. Government offices were closed Monday, but state and county officials plan to meet with railroad executives today.