Idaho Shouldn’t Pass Up Trail Offer

Sometimes, Idaho Gov. Phil Batt’s penny-pinching tendency flares at the wrong time. Earlier this year, for example, he balked at providing funds to maintain the eastern end of the Centennial Trail, along Lake Coeur d’Alene, a picture-postcard stretch of the two-state system.

Now, maintenance and liability worries have caused the Republican governor to hesitate at accepting a once-in-a-lifetime offer made by Union Pacific. The railroad is willing to pave its old Silver Valley line and give it to Idaho as a trail, stretching 72 miles from mining country to Plummer and the heart of the Coeur d’Alene Indian Reservation.

For little or no capital investment, the state would get a trail that hugs wetlands, mountains, some 40 miles of river, another 10 miles of Lake Coeur d’Alene and links Silver Valley hamlets. Eventually, a spur link over Fourth of July Pass, east of Coeur d’Alene, could tie it to the Centennial Trail, providing a three-state trail from Spokane, through the Idaho Panhandle and into Montana.

All that stands in the way of having a world-class trail in our back yard is the willingness of Batt, and Union Pacific, to work out details and open the purse strings slightly.

During the Legislature, Batt groused about funding maintenance costs for the heavily used eastern end of the Centennial Trail. He didn’t want to add ongoing expenses to the state park system. Now, he doesn’t want the state to pay for maintaining the trail proposed by Union Pacific.

Batt also is adamant - and correctly so - that the state not assume the railroad’s liability. Union Pacific wants to be exempt from any liability that comes from a century of spilling toxic wastes along the track.

The Coeur d’Alene Indian Tribe shares the governor’s concerns about the toxic-waste issue. The tribe has sued several mining companies and the railroad to force cleanup of toxic areas downstream from the Silver Valley Superfund site. Tribal leaders don’t oppose the rail-trail project. But they want the work done right. So do we.

Union Pacific, to its credit, has signed an agreement to remove dirt and material along seven miles of track within the Superfund area. But it also must make the remainder of the trail - as well as possible recreation sites along it - ecologically safe. State officials and Union Pacific should explore cost-effective ways to do so.

Formal negotiations can begin once the federal Surface Transportation Board agrees to “rail bank” the line. That designation prevents the Union Pacific right of way from being sold piecemeal.

Union Pacific’s proposal is a silver lining to all the years of struggle for the Silver Valley’s historic mining district. It would provide the first rail-trail ever that would be donated, paved and ready to operate.

Idaho mustn’t lose this opportunity by fretting over a few operational dollars.

, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = D.F. Oliveria/For the editorial board