County Presses BNSF On Depot Rules

The railroad corporation BNSF , which operates a controversial refueling station in Hauser, over the Rathdrum Prairie aquifer, has taken Kootenai County to court over tighter aquifer protection measures. The County wants to make the new measures part of a permit renewal for the facility. After agreeing to a set of conditions in its original negotiated permit some ten years ago, BNSF is now opposed to any new conditions and is claiming that the County has no jurisdiction at all over railroad operations. … As part of its current permit, BNSF has been responsible for funding a monitoring program with Idaho DEQ .  The monitoring program was scheduled to sunset after 10 years, but as part of the permit renewal, Kootenai County wants to make the monitoring permanent. However, BNSF no longer wants to pay for monitoring/ Terry Harris , KEA Blog. More here . (KEA Blogs photo)

Question: Has BNSF been a good neighbor for Kootenai County, to this point?