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Governor visits Superfund siteBy MICHAEL RICHESON/Daily Inter LakeGov. Brian Schweitzer had good advice for his dog at the Superfund site behind Office Max during a visit to Kalispell on Friday.
“Don’t lick anything, Jake,” he said. Schweitzer toured three sites located off of Flathead Drive that are heavily contaminated from decades of industrial use. The contaminated area has been listed as a Superfund site since the 1980s. According to the Montana Department of Environmental Quality, the shallow groundwater underneath the sites is contaminated with pentachlorophenol, dioxins/furans and petroleum hydrocarbons. The carcinogenic toxins have leached into drinking water supplies, and they have traveled south across U.S. 2 past Town Pump. According to Moriah Bucy, an environmental specialist with the DEQ, water samples from a well near Town Pump show toxins at 40 times the acceptable standard. Contamination from various operations by Kalispell Pole and Timber, Reliance Refinery Co. and Yale Oil Corp. dates back to the 1930s, but the primary company liable for cleanup costs is Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway because it leased the land. The Reliance Refinery facility site, partially owned by the state of Montana and administered by the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, involved an oil refinery that operated from 1924 to the 1960s. Soils at that site are contaminated with petroleum hydrocarbons and metals such as lead. Sludge that was dumped into pits and then covered is now pushing its way through the soil, forming patches of asphalt. Yale Oil operated a petroleum bulk plant and refinery from 1938 to 1978. The site is now occupied by the Office Max building. Exxon Mobil cleaned up the property after being notified by DEQ. The Kalispell Pole and Timber facility, partially owned by Burlington Northern Santa Fe, was a wood-treating facility that operated from about 1945 to 1990. Soils at the site are contaminated with pentachlorophenol, dioxins/furans and petroleum hydrocarbons. The state Legislature passed House Bill 388, which allotted $1.3 million for cleanup of the area. In 1995, the DEQ sent notices to a list of businesses identified as being “potentially liable” parties to kick-start cleanup efforts. Another round of notices went out in 2001. The DEQ filed suit against the companies in 2004 to make them pay for the cleanup. Other companies named in the suit include Exxon Mobil, Swank Enterprises, Klingler Lumber Co. and Montana Mokko. A recent report by the DEQ lists two main proposals for cleanup. One proposal would simply be to cap sections of the area. Capping is a process that prevents the migration of pollutants, but doesn’t fix the pollution problem. Estimated costs for capping the site are about $5.8 million, but caps require inspections and maintenance. Caps are a long-term but not permanent solution. The areas also cannot be disturbed by future development. The second solution would require excavating acres of land, and then running the contaminated soil through an on-site treatment process. Treating the soil would cost closer to $28.5 million, which means the state would have to pay more as well, but Schweitzer said the higher cost is worth it in the long run. With the Stillwater River running next to the site, Schweitzer said it would be hard for him to demand that Canada not allow coal-bed methane exploration at the head of the Flathead River and then to turn away from fixing this problem. “We want to do the right thing,” he said. “The permanent solution is the best solution. If we believe in clean water, then we believe in clean water.” Both Cenex and Northwest Drywall want to move their facilities to the site, which would allow better access to the rail line and offer customers the ability to skip driving through downtown Kalispell with grain trucks. Schweitzer said that cleaning up the site and moving Cenex to the area would be best for the community. “It doesn’t make sense, for an area growing this fast, to have this doughnut,” he said of the Superfund site. “Let’s get Cenex down here. Let’s get Northwest Drywall down here. Let’s get moving.” Reporter Michael Richeson may be reached at 758-4459 or by e-mail at mricheson@dailyinterlake.com |
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