As early as next week, Washington state officials will lead a new round of negotiations that may help determine the final alignment of the southern half of Spokane’s North-South Freeway. The focus of the discussions is a decades-old oil spill on railroad land in Hillyard and the method for cleaning it up. The result of those talks will determine whether the proposed alignment of the freeway will stay as is or be changed. That’s of interest to Hillyard residents because the highway will split their neighborhood.
On Wednesday night, representatives from two state agencies briefed Hillyard neighborhood leaders.
Meetings of the Hillyard Neighborhood Council aren’t normally this well attended.
At the Northeast Community Center, between 20 and 30 people crowded into a small room to hear the message from Department of Transportation Regional Administrator Mike Gribner. He was there to tell them about negotiations between the state and Burlington Northern. That’s one of two parties deemed responsible for the oil spill at what is now called the Black Tank.
“So I think the way I’d like to start this conversation is to take you guys, as transparently as I can, to the last six-seven weeks about what has been going on around the Black Tank,” Gribner told the group.
The Black Tank is part of a seven-acre site near Wellesley and Market where there are pockets of contaminated soil and two plumes that plunge 170 feet deep into the ground, right to the top of the aquifer. From there, the oil fans out. For now, state officials say the water quality there is ok.
But the Department of Ecology says the situation is tenuous enough that the contaminated soil needs to be removed soon. The state has its preferred method for doing that. The railroad has its preference. Whether those can be reconciled is one of the big questions to be negotiated.
Another big question is timing. The Black Tank is near where the freeway to scheduled to be built. Can the cleanup proceed in a way that it can co-exist with the construction and operation of the freeway?
Along with the ecological questions are the political realities. Money for the freeway — about $750 million — has been allocated and lawmakers want to see it spent. After the meeting, Gribner said that’s giving urgency to this round of negotiations.
“There is significant political interest in trying to come to a resolution on this. That is actually helpful. It’s forcing all the parties, even the ones that are less interested, to the table for this conversation," Gribner said. "Whether or not we get to an agreement, I think is unknown. But there’s going to be a very significant attempt in the next couple weeks to try to get to an agreement.”
Gribner wants to keep the freeway on its current proposed alignment, but he and his team are mapping out Plan B if the negotiations stall. That would raise the freeway in parts of Hillyard, something neighborhood leaders like Luke Tolley don’t want to see.
“The thought of a raised freeway going through our historic neighborhood is disconcerting for a lot of reasons," Tolley said. "One of the big ones is what happens underneath it. You look at downtown and they’ve done a ton of work to try to make sure that what is under the freeway is positive for the city. We don’t have the exact same resources they have downtown so that’s a scary thought.”
During the meeting, Gribner referred to a Plan C, details still being worked out. It apparently doesn’t include a raised freeway. Tolley says he has his fingers crossed for the upcoming negotiations, but even if they don’t go well, there’s reason to hope.
“Even just tonight learning that they are working on an alternative alternative, that hopefully will be more acceptable for us," he said. "Is it going to be exactly what we want? Probably not, but is it a compromise that we can work with? I sure hope so.”
Tolley’s optimism wasn’t shared by all at the Wednesday night meeting. Some are upset with the railroad and want the state to take a hard line in the negotiations.
Mike Gribner says the state is instead using persuasion rather than punishment. It doesn’t have as much leverage as it would like. For example, Burlington Northern owns the land that contains the spill and can control access to it. So Gribner is hoping a collaborative approach will work.
“It is our job to bring diplomacy to that conversation and try to figure out how to get as many people to the ‘win’ side of the column as possible,” he said.
He hopes the ‘win’ side will lead to a freeway in its current planned alignment. But, if in the next couple of weeks that ‘win’ side seems too far away, Gribner may have to go his own way and get moving on the alternative.