James Hagengruber

Freight trains were backed up for miles Thursday during the final hours of refueling operations at BNSF Railway's depot in Hauser, Idaho. Because of fuel leaks at the facility, the depot was under court order to cease all refueling by midafternoon. "There's trains stopped clear down as far as Argonne Road," roughly 10 miles from the depot, said Hauser resident Wes Michael.

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.

Polite requests have not been enough to temporarily stop refueling operations at the leaking BNSF Railway depot in Hauser, Idaho. Attorneys for the state of Idaho and Kootenai County spent Friday gathering legal ammunition to stop the railroad. Courtroom action could begin early next week.

The world is getting warmer, but the problem isn't as severe as many scientists claim, said noted climatologist and author Patrick J. Michaels in a speech Tuesday at the annual meeting of the Inland Empire Reforestation Council in Coeur d'Alene. Michaels, a professor at the University of Virginia, is a contributing author and reviewer of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. He's critical of the group's 2001 report that shows a sharp spike in global temperatures, which was used to promote programs, including the Kyoto protocol, aimed at curbing greenhouse gases. The panel includes dozens of the world's leading scientists, a majority of whom have endorsed the report.

Another fuel leak has been detected at the Hauser, Idaho, railroad refueling depot operated by Burlington Northern & Santa Fe Co. The company has shut down one of its three high-speed locomotive refueling stations, and Kootenai County commissioners now say they want the entire facility closed until further notice.

Despite almost unanimous support, a program that has pumped more than $1 billion into rural schools and highways may be running out of time. Last week, the Bush administration's top forestry official declined to endorse reauthorization of the so-called Craig-Wyden program – named after its sponsors, Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, and Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore. – which was instituted five years ago to rescue rural areas from the economic doldrums following the collapse of the federal timber harvest.

Cleanup of creosote-soaked soil in St. Maries could cost between $4 million and $67 million, according to an estimate from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Officials in the city of 2,600 worry it could be stuck with a portion of the bill because the company accused of causing the contamination, Cook Cedar, has long been out of business, said Mayor Robert Allen. St. Maries has already spent more than $300,000 on legal fees and preliminary cleanup work since an oily sheen was found floating on the St. Joe River in front of the site in 1998.

The vocabulary of war is often used to describe relations between the U.S. Forest Service and environmental groups that skirmish with the agency in court. But both sides have been waving white flags in recent months.

An Idaho Transportation Department plan to begin unclogging some of the sediment from the Mica Creek watershed has been approved by the state's Department of Environmental Quality. Transportation Department spokeswoman Barbara Babic said work will begin later this year to stabilize the lower 900 feet of Mica Creek, as well as to restore nearby wetlands. The department will spend $25,190 on the project, which is expected to take place in late summer to minimize harm on aquatic life.

A day after the bodies of two Gonzaga University students were recovered from a deadly avalanche near Mullan, Idaho, a regional avalanche warning center had clear advice for those considering a winter adventure in the region's rain-sodden backcountry. "Stay home!" was the message posted on the Web site for the U.S. Forest Service's Idaho Panhandle Avalanche Center.