Depot Engineer, Inspector Clash Experts Interpret Codes In Different Ways

Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway agreed to pay experts to monitor progress on the railroad’s fueling facility near Hauser.

They didn’t promise to like the results.

Kootenai County’s hand-picked Seattle engineer and his counterpart at BNSF are sparring over building plans for the depot.

Areas of disagreement include how the railroad plans to deal with the unlikely event of a diesel spill or fire.

The dispute isn’t serious, said Kootenai County Building Officer Nik Bentley, who briefed county commissioners Tuesday morning.

“I’m just trying to get this all wrapped up so we can get the permit issued,” he said.

Commissioners Dick Panabaker and Dick Compton - Commissioner Ron Rankin was absent - told Bentley to arrange an immediate meeting between the engineers.

“You’re the mediator on this,” Compton said. “You’ve got our absolute, 100 percent support.”

The BNSF’s 500,000-gallon diesel locomotive refueling depot will sit over the aquifer that supplies drinking water for 400,000 Spokane and Kootenai County residents.

Last March, the County Commission approved a permit for the depot, but attached 33 conditions for Burlington Northern to meet.

In one condition, the railroad agreed to pay for county-hired inspectors to review depot construction.

The county picked Seattle engineer Jerry Barbera to review BNSF building plans due to his expertise, Bentley said.

Barbera, who worked for 10 years on Los Angeles County refinery issues, retired this year from the International Conference of Building Officers, which develops the Uniform Building Code used around the world.

The two engineers disagree over code interpretation. Bentley told the commission that while BNSF engineer Kenny Hancock is applying the intent of the code, Barbera wants to see the letter of the code applied.

Hancock said by phone Tuesday that the depot disputes aren’t major - or unusual.

“The differences of opinion are no more or less than a typical review,” Hancock said. “All codes are not black and white. They’re gray. They take interpretation just like the Bible does.”

But Barbera faults BNSF for not providing more specifics about response plans for fuel spills or fires.

The only plan submitted by BNSF to date shows that the Rathdrum Fire Department will handle the first response and that three area contractors are on-call.

“(Hancock) needs to fine-tune that,” Bentley said.

BNSF usually addresses emergency response in a manual written toward the end of construction, an industrywide practice, Hancock said. But the company will release a draft manual to county officials on the Hauser depot, he said.

“We intend to cooperate fully with anything the building department is asking of us.”

Some of Barbera’s comments had the commissioners wondering whether their engineer is being overzealous in his review. For example: Barbera questions whether Rathdrum fire crews are qualified to respond.

But foes of the depot - who recently asked the federal Surface Transportation Board to intervene - hope commissioners follow their engineer’s advice.

“This is a unique situation, building this sort of facility over an aquifer,” said Spokane resident Richard Rush, with Friends of the Aquifer. “It’s unprecedented and it deserves the utmost scrutiny by the most trained and experienced people available.”

Both commissioners expressed confidence that BNSF will build and operate the depot safely. Past BNSF operations led to numerous contaminated sites, such as in Mandan, N.D., where a layer of diesel fuel still floats beneath the town despite more than 10 years of cleanup.

Panabaker said BNSF officials assured the county the Hauser depot will be a showcase of modern environmental technology.

“I don’t expect any problems out there,” he said. “They need to be good neighbors - which they’ve never been in the past.”

A BNSF spokesman said this week that he expects construction on the Hauser depot to start next year and last for three years.

Bentley said he expects to issue building permits for the facility by the end of the year. But the county’s senior planner, Rand Wichman, said if BNSF wanted to hurry the permit, it could be finished by the end of this week.

“They’re not that far off,” Wichman said.