Bn Faces Fast-Growing Grass-Roots Opposition

The neighbors are getting nervous.

The prospect of having millions of gallons of diesel parked over their source of drinking water is rallying neighborhood groups across Spokane.

They are asking Spokane County commissioners and the Spokane City Council to take notice of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad’s proposed refueling depot at Rathdrum.

“It’s a total grass-roots upswell of outrage,”said Susan Brudnicki, president of the Moran Prairie Neighborhood Association. “There hasn’t been one person who doesn’t think it’s horrifying.

“They all say ‘they are thinking of doing what?”’ Forty-two Spokane groups, calling themselves the Spokane County Coalition of Neighborhoods, are talking about the refueling depot.

Part of the worry is that because the refueling depot would be upstream from Spokane, any spill that reached the aquifer could reach Spokane’s drinking water.

“Because it’s a sole-source aquifer, a spill would be catastrophic,” Brudnicki said.

Part of the worry is Burlington Northern’s track record. There are four BN sites in the Spokane area where the soil has been contaminated by petroleum products - serious enough to qualify for scrutiny by the state model toxics cleanup program.

Statewide, the Washington Department of Ecology has fined Burlington Northern more than $32,000 for seven pollution violations over the past dozen years.

Three of the fines were for breaking water quality laws, the Department of Ecology said. Two were for air pollution problems - burning old ties near Spokane. The single largest fine - $14,000 - stems from hazardous waste problems in southwestern Washington.

In another seven cases recorded since 1986, the railroad was ordered to correct problems, but not fined. Technology and times have changed, the railroad says. The practices of the past are not the sort of thing that would happen in Rathdrum.

Everything would be state-of-the-art, Burlington Northern said. Railroad employees would be ever-vigilant.

“Our number one goal is safety - for our employees, the public, the railroad and the environment,” said Gus Melonas, a railroad spokesman.

But the Moran Prairie Association wants Burlington Northern to commission a study of the economic consequences of a spill.

Melonas said the railroad is willing to “look into” such a study.

“Spokane would suffer the brunt of it because we are downstream and because we have a larger metropolitan area,” Brudnicki said. “There are so many unanswered questions that should be addressed before a decision is made.”