Governor impressed with work on BN's Livingston pollution site

By SCOTT McMILLION Chronicle Staff Writer

LIVINGSTON - Gov. Brian Schweitzer said he's impressed.

ERIK PETERSEN/CHRONICLE Aimee Reynolds, of the Montana Department of Environmental Quality, shows Governor Brian Schweitzer part of the system of wells and pipes that carry polluted water to a treatment plant in Livingston where clean up is being done after decades of pollution by Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad. After years of little activity, pumps and filters are once again sucking up the diesel fuel and other gunk that pollute much of the soil and groundwater here.

“There's been a lot of activity since I was here last,” Schweitzer said Tuesday after a quick tour of cleanup projects in the Livingston railyards. “Now we're on the verge of moving a whole lot of water.”

The cleanup job is addressing two types of pollution: a plume of diesel fuel, spilled or dumped over decades of railroad operations; and a much broader plume of volatile organic compounds used for degreasing and other work by Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad and its corporate ancestors.

The company has spent nearly $20 million on cleanup projects in Livingston, according to railroad spokesman Gus Melonas. About half of that money was spent in the late 1980s, shortly after the extent of the pollution was discovered.

The rest, he said, has been spent in the past year and a half, after Schweitzer told the railroad that he was done negotiating and from that point forward, the state Department of Environmental Quality would contract the work itself and send the railroad the bill.

Since then, the railroad has drilled about 20 new wells and built a $4 million water-treatment plant. The plant is designed to use activated carbon to filter oil from the water, which, after it's cleaned, will be discharged into the Yellowstone River.

Other plans call for injecting neutralizing chemicals, such as sodium permanganate, into the “sources” of the solvents, to help them decompose and stop spreading into the groundwater, said Aimee Reynolds, project manager here for the DEQ.

Earlier cleanup projects, under Gov. Stan Stephens' administration, removed a number of pollution sources, mostly old drains and saturated soils, Reynolds said. At that time, crews “did a ton of work,” she said, but she's still finding new pollution sources.

During most of the 1990s, during Govs. Marc Racicot and Judy Martz' tenures, little cleanup work was accomplished, although a lot of negotiations took place.

Reynolds said she hopes to have the pollution fully mapped out and cleanup mechanisms in place within five years. State documents have estimated the cleanup work could last for 20 years.

Schweitzer didn't emphasize Tuesday the tough stance he took with the railroad early in 2006, but Reynolds said his position made a lot of difference in terms of getting work done on the ground.

“After the governor and the (DEQ) director said, ‘No more negotiating,' it got a lot easier,” Reynolds said. Since then, “this has been a new project.”

Melonas, who also took the tour, said he appreciated the governor taking time to inspect the facility.

Since the 1980s, 3,000 gallons of diesel have been removed, 2 million gallons of water treated, 200 recovery or monitoring wells drilled and 4,000 soil, groundwater and gas samples taken, Melonas said, though much work remains to be done.

There also have been a variety of lawsuits filed. Park County sued the railroad and won a multimillion-dollar award in the 1990s. Several businesses have sued and settled under undisclosed terms. The railroad is buying up a small neighborhood over the solvent plume. And the city of Livingston, along with about 100 individuals and businesses, recently sued the railroad, alleging pollution seeped from railroad land to other properties.

The state of Montana has not joined that suit.

“We're not party to it yet,” Schweitzer said.

Melonas said the railroad is still studying the suit and he could not comment further.

For now, Schweitzer said, he's glad to see actual cleanup moving ahead again.

“It's a greater challenge but we're moving in the right direction,” he said.

Scott McMillion is at scottm@dailychronicle.com

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