ARRC settles Canyon spill

ANCHORAGE - The Alaska Railroad Corp. announced last week it will pay the federal government $150,000 and purchase upgrade emergency equipment as part of a settlement relating to an October 1999 derailment and fuel spill at Canyon, south of Hurricane, in the upper Susitna Valley.

"ARRC is glad to bring Canyon to closure," said ARRC's Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Matt Glynn, in a press release. "We recovered 94 percent of the fuel spilled within weeks of the derailment, received a 'no-further-action' determination from the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation last September, and are operating with improved response procedures under a C-plan filed with DEC. With this settlement, we resolve the federal claims and get a vastly improved emergency response vehicle in the process."

ARRC, in the settlement, opted to use a credit known as a Supplemental Environmental Project. The project consisted of outfitting a mobile command center with hyrail gear. Patrick Flynn, ARRC spokesman, said the command centers are designed to respond to emergencies at remote sites. The hyrail gear allows the center to travel on railroad tracks so crews can respond faster to remote emergencies. While spill response equipment is stored on the mobile command center, Flynn said perhaps a more important component is the communications equipment.

"If we had earthquake damage in Healy Canyon and needed to get clear lines of communication in place, we could mobilize this piece of equipment," Flynn said.

Matt Carr, a federal on-scene coordinator for the Environmental Protection Agency, said the command center will be able to respond to a remote scene much faster than an engine and rail cars. In addition to being able to relay information to ARRC's Anchorage command center, digital images can also be sent, and continued monitoring may take place with the help of such mobile centers. The upgrade cost, according to ARRC, will be at least $25,000.

Carr said the amount of the settlement and the project agreement are in line with federal standards governing spills in federally managed areas. The spill, he said, falls under federal jurisdiction because it flowed into navigable waters.

"[It covers] all surface waters," Carr said, "and we have jurisdiction over that."

He said ARRC's quick cleanup response factored into the overall settlement cost.

"It was a fairly significant settlement, a fairly significant spill," Carr said. "The amount they recovered certainly was one of the factors."

The Canyon derailment was the first of three derailments that took place during a 10-month period three years ago, and it's the first derailment to be settled. According to information from ARRC, the Oct. 31, 1999, derailment occurred in a remote area about 40 miles north of Talkeetna and involved an Anchorage-bound train carrying Jet-A fuel. Flynn said investigation found that the rails had "rolled" under the train, spilling approximately 12,500 gallons into a small tributary of the nearby Indian River and into several beaver ponds. A combination of ARRC employees and contractors successfully recovered 94 percent of the fuel and no measurable contamination remains.

The spill took place while the ground and water were frozen, DEC's Leslie Pearson said, which helped with the recovery effort considerably, allowing the beaver dams and ponds along the stream to act as a containment area for the fuel.

Pearson said the Gold Creek spill, which happened just two months later in the Talkeetna area, is being monitored and legal discussions are just beginning. Ten tank cars loaded with Jet-A fuel overturned on Dec. 22, 1999, spilling 120,000 gallons of fuel into the ground near the Susitna River. Although some seepage initially occurred, subsequent tests have not revealed additional spillage into the salmon-rich river.

"There hasn't really been any active recovery since probably August of 2000," Pearson said. "It's considered a groundwater spill, and the railroad does have constant monitoring in place."

Pearson said DEC went out for public comment after the Gold Creek spill reached the monitoring phase and requested input into the different proposals at hand for dealing with the project. Continued monitoring was found to be the best way to handle the project at this time, and DEC requested that the railroad prepare a contingency plan for what should happen if the contamination reaches the Susitna River.

Flynn said there were several wells drilled in the area, and monitoring will continue. The recovery effort, he said, is done.

"At this point, what can be recovered has been recovered," Flynn said. "All science indicates there's no chance any of [the fuel remaining in the ground] will move."

A smaller spill took place in July 2000, on the Palmer Hay Flats. According to information from ARRC, a train hauling 55 cars from Fairbanks to Anchorage derailed near Rabbit Slough, about a mile from the Glenn Highway. Four tank cars filled with highly flammable unleaded gasoline and a flatbed car tumbled down a 25-foot embankment, spilling around 1,000 gallons into a stagnant pool in the marshy area.

Flynn said ARRC has since taken several measures to prevent future spills or derailments, including projects to rebuild decayed railbeds, rehabilitate lines of track and increased employee efforts to be vigilant of their work.

"It's a comprehensive effort," Flynn said.