Two Washington state agencies and Burlington Northern Railroad today (Tuesday) announced an agreement that will lead to the cleanup of a contaminated railroad site in Halliard. It will also give the planners of the the North-South Freeway some certainty about the path through Hillyard as construction continues.
The agreement provides a framework to take care of two big issues, one biological, one political.
The biological problem is a contaminated seven-acre site on railroad land in Hillyard. Oil has seeped into the ground at what is called the Black Tank and made its way down to the top of the aquifer about 170 feet below. It needs to be removed.
The political problem is the pressure put on the Washington Department of Transportation to get moving on construction of the southern half of the North-South Freeway. Money — about $750 million — has been allocated for that. The current alignment runs near the contaminated site. Because of that there has been uncertainty about whether the freeway would follow its planned route or be moved. A proposed alternative alignment a bit to the west includes an elevated section that people in the neighborhood don’t like.
Regional Administrator Mike Gribner says it looks like the solution is a hybrid.
“Part of the agreement is to expose as much of the area as possible, for both BNSF and Ecology’s sake and so we’re going to move the alignment as much as we can and expose as much of that area as possible,” Gribner said.
But he says there probably won’t be an elevated section, which will make people in the neighborhood happy, according to City Councilwoman Amber Waldref, who represents the district.
As far as the cleanup, Jeremy Schmidt, an environmental engineer for the Department of Ecology, says it calls for Burlington Northern to proceed with its own cleanup plan for five years. That means pumping air into the ground to encourage microbes in the dirt to eat the oil.
“If it does not seem to be cleaning up the site as fast as we would like after that five years, then we will evaluate the use of more aggressive cleanup alternatives,” Schmidt said.
Schmidt says the railroad and Husky Energy, the other liable party, will submit a clean up to be reviewed by the agency and put out for public review. That process leading to the start of cleanup is expected to take a year or two and the overall cleanup could take up to 20 years. Until then, Schmidt says other surface level cleanup on other contamination within the seven acres will proceed.
For Burlington Northern, spokeswoman Courtney Wallace says the agreement provides some certainty as it works to finalize its cleanup plans.
“This framework really allows us to stop having those long negotiations and get things moving for both projects,” Wallace said.
The railroad may wind up moving some of its tracks in the area to help facilitate the cleanup.
Word about the agreement is getting around to residents in the Hillyard neighborhood. Mike Gribner says the people he has briefed have reacted positively, and so has Amber Waldref, who represents the neighborhood on the city council.
“I am just so pleased that all the parties were able to come together and I think find an agreement that’s going to be very important to keeping the North-South Corridor on track,” Waldref said.
What’s next? Mike Gribner says the next milestone will be to finalize the cleanup agreement. Once that’s done, he hopes work on the freeway can speed up and get back on track.