BNSF still testing after depot leak

Investigators expect to know Monday if diesel fuel from a broken pipe at a railroad refueling facility reached the Rathdrum Prairie Aquifer near Hauser, Idaho.

The leaking wastewater pipe was detected a week ago at the newly constructed Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway Co. refueling depot. A railroad spokesman said there’s no evidence of danger to the region’s drinking water supply – the aquifer is about 160 feet below the site – but a state official cautioned against drawing conclusions until soil test results are returned Monday.

The 8-inch-wide PVC pipe was believed to have been broken during construction, said BNSF spokesman Gus Melonas. The depot opened Sept. 1 and was expected to pump about 225,000 gallons of diesel per day.

The broken pipe drained unpressurized wastewater from the main fueling platform to an on-site treatment facility, Melonas said. The liquid is similar to what would be found at any automobile gas station – mostly water, but also small amounts of fuel, motor oil and engine coolant.

“Minimal amounts are spilled during this process; there could be some drips,” Melonas said.

Wastewater, including rain and snowmelt, is also collected from the depot’s fuel tank storage area. Combined, about 2,300 gallons of wastewater are collected daily by the system, but Melonas said it would be “impossible” to break down the specific amount of wastewater collected by the fueling platform’s drains. The covered platform is also regularly cleaned with pressurized water, which is then collected and treated.

Oil and diesel are separated on-site from the collected wastewater, with the concentrated waste shipped by rail to the Midwest for further treatment, railroad officials said during a tour Aug. 31.

BNSF is conducting an exhaustive investigation into why the underground pipe broke, Melonas said. A leading theory is that it was damaged during construction by heavy equipment. Other pipes at the depot are currently being pressure tested.

Stan Miller, one of the region’s leading experts on the aquifer, said he suspects the groundwater below the depot is safe, but any spilled fuel needs to be removed quickly from the soil. Until his retirement this year, Miller served as water resources program manager for Spokane County and was closely involved in the lengthy debate preceding the depot’s construction.

“It’s probably not going to pose an immediate threat,” Miller said of the spilled wastewater. “The absorptive capacity of the soil is going to suck up quite a bit of it. … But whatever’s in the soil is there and over time that’s going to migrate downward. It has to be cleaned up.”

The $42 million refueling depot was considered the safest in the nation when it opened, BNSF officials said. Two layers of high-density plastic were buried below the refueling platform and nearly every pipe was protected or double-lined. The buried wastewater pipe was the one exception, Miller said. The broken section of pipe was outside the containment area.

“It was the weak link in the chain and it broke,” Miller said. “It’s something that I didn’t like from the beginning.”

In terms of groundwater safety, every other “base was covered,” at the depot, Miller said. Although Miller believes the aquifer will not be tainted by the spill, he said the break raised troubling questions.

“Are there other bases where there’s a similar problem? The fact that something like that happened is telling me there’s some lax moments in construction inspection,” he said. “Something slipped.”

BNSF spokesman Melonas declined to discuss the nature of talks taking place now between the railroad and the engineering and construction firms. He stressed that the railroad is doing everything possible to fix the problem. One drilling rig is already at the site collecting soil samples. An additional drilling rig is being sent.

The company has already gathered soil samples from at least 60 feet deep, Melonas said, but he declined to say if the samples contained any diesel. “The field investigation continues to show that the wastewater leakage has not impacted the aquifer.”

Marc Kalbaugh, site remediation manager for the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality, has been monitoring the railroad’s response and said he is satisfied with his observations. “They’re moving forward just as fast as they can. It’s in their best interest to conduct this in a rapid manner.”

Kootenai County Commission Chairman Dick Panabaker said the spill is no cause for concern. He expressed anger at depot critics who have cited the break as evidence that the facility should not have been built over the aquifer.

“It’s not a big deal,” Panabaker said. “It’s a bunch about nothing. … There’s worse spills that go on everyday.”

Panabaker said he was contacted Friday by BNSF and informed of the spill. He has since been updated and has learned that traces of fuel have been found at 50 feet, but that tests down to 80 feet have been free of fuel.

Another county commissioner, Gus Johnson, was a bit more concerned about the break. Johnson said he was not informed of the leak until Tuesday. He is currently writing a letter to BNSF asking the company to address specific concerns, including what will happen to the contaminated soil.

“I’d just like to get to the bottom of it,” Johnson said. “We can’t fix what happened, but we can make sure it doesn’t happen again.”