Bnsf Official Stands By Beliefs
THE DEPOT DEBATE
Today, Kootenai County commissioners are expected to make a decision on Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway’s controversial bid to build a refueling depot near Hauser.
Because of its location - atop the area’s sole source of drinking water - the depot plan has sparked a regional debate.
Today’s stories examine the work of two people playing key roles in that debate - a railroad employee and a local activist.
Kevin Barker isn’t your usual third-generation railroad manager.
A small, silver hoop earring dangles from Barker’s right ear.
The 45-year-old Spokane resident, who started working for the railroad more than 20 years ago, spends off-time paddling mountain rivers in a canoe.
But it’s underground water that’s taking up much of his time lately.
Barker is Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway’s front man for pitching the 500,000-gallon diesel refueling depot BNSF wants to build near Hauser. Hired to spearhead public outreach in April 1998, he is at the center of a fiery regional debate.
Since the depot idea surfaced, local officials have received more than 4,000 signatures opposing it.
The fervor of depot opponents doesn’t surprise Barker, an Inland Northwest native who understands the passion locals feel for their environment.
Before he got involved with the depot issue, Barker says he asked his company for a guarantee it wouldn’t pollute the Spokane Valley-Rathdrum Prairie Aquifer below. He got one.
“There’s no way I was going to be involved in a project that would in any way damage the environment,” Barker said last week. “Frankly, there’s no way the railroad would be involved, either.”
Ensconced in a borrowed office at the railroad’s Spokane Division headquarters at Hillyard, Barker keeps his cellular phone and briefcase nearby.
During a recent interview, a call interrupted him. It was his daughter, Megan, a freshman at Spokane Falls Community College.
Last month, she unknowingly ate an LSD-laced lollipop at an Eastern Washington University party. She broke her hand under the drug’s influence, and went to the hospital.
Barker acknowledges he’s had to “compartmentalize” his life to focus on the depot, his hands forming boxes as he talks. Three days after Megan’s accident, three nights of public hearings started on the facility.
Her father stood up in front of the Kootenai County commission and a crowd of about 200 people, a few who later booed and hissed at railroad backers.
He gave a presentation much like countless others he’s delivered in the last year: railroad studies prove no diesel will harm drinking water wells; high-tech environmental protections allay any chance of a spill.
It’s tough to stand in front of a crowd that sees you as the enemy, Barker says.
“To be demonized can be unsettling … because nothing can be farther from the truth.”
However, Barker says, nearly all the people he’s met with regarding the depot - including opponents - have listened and showed curiosity and respect.
Born into a railroad family, Barker tells how his parents met when both worked for the Burlington Northern; his father retired as the Missoula area sales manager after nearly 40 years.
Barker’s own railroad jobs necessitated a military-style series of family moves that often uprooted his wife, Billie, son Michael, 15, and Megan.
Barker started out as a ticket clerk for Amtrak in 1973, moved over to Burlington Northern in 1979 and quickly moved up the corporate ladder in Minnesota, Kansas and Seattle. By 1987, he had risen to a supervisor post as a trainmaster at the BNSF’s Seattle terminal.
He came to Spokane in 1995 as the director of administration for the division.
The frequent moves and position changes - a dozen since 1979 - made the most of what Barker calls his “quick learning curve.”
“He’s a fast learner,” agrees Larry Wood, an occasional paddling partner and member of the Spokane Canoe and Kayak Club since 1985.
Wood says trips together on the St. Joe and White rivers revealed Barker’s love for water and his openmindedness.
Barker and son, Michael, paddled the family’s tandem canoe through a Class III rapid, the Spokane River’s Devil’s Toenail.
“He knows his limits,” he says. “He doesn’t shy away from things he can do, he recognizes things he shouldn’t do and stays away from that.”
Pursuing a master’s degree in counseling psychology at Gonzaga University, Barker hopes someday to become a school counselor - though finishing grad school is still about three years away.
In the meantime, Barker is looking forward to today’s decision by Kootenai County commissioners on a his company’s depot plan: ”It’ll be a relief to have a resolution, one way or the other.”
This sidebar appeared with the story:
The issue
Kootenai County Commissioners today are expected to decide whether to permit Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway to build a refueling depot near Hauser.
PRO - Railroad officials - and local economic developers - say a new refueling depot will allow BNSF to compete with other railroads and truckers, as well as combat rail congestion in Seattle. State-of-the-art environmental safeguards mean there is no chance of polluting groundwater, company officials say.
CON - Depot opponents say it poses too great a threat to the Spokane Valley-Rathdrum Aquifer, the sole drinking-water source for 400,000 residents. BNSF cannot guarantee groundwater protection, opponents say, and there are better sites available off the aquifer.
See related article under headline “Activist works in overdrive”