Railroad plans weed kill

July 16, 2006

DARRELL L. BREESE

Frontiersman

PALMER - The Alaska Railroad has carved a path through some of the most rugged parts of the state, crossing miles of marsh, spanning countless rivers and scaling rugged mountains. Despite the marvels of engineering, the railroad is threatened by a bunch of weeds.

The pesky plants have led the railroad to request permission from the state Department of Environmental Conservation to spray a chemical herbicide along the 500 miles of tracks.

Ernest Piper, assistant vice president of safety and operations for the railroad, said the decision to use herbicide wasn't an easy one. It only came about after millions of dollars were spent over the past decade trying to kill weeds with steam, fire and even infrared light.

&#8220We've tried almost every method possible to eradicate the weeds,” Piper said. &#8220Over the last five years, we've spent about $5 million to address the problem. That doesn't include the money spent on improving the tracks and our track-straightening program. It's just on weed control.”

Despite the efforts, the problem persists and poses a safety issue for railroad employees, passengers and communities through which the trains

travel.

&#8220The danger is that the weeds and other vegetation which grows in the ballast area of the track damages drainage and can cause deviations in the track geometry, increasing the risk of a derailment,” Piper said. &#8220If we don't address this problem now with an herbicide, the danger level will increase as more damage is done.”

The herbicide the railroad proposes using is a combination of Glyphosate, 2,4-D and Oust Extra. The three chemicals will be combined with Alenza Drift Retardant, which will limit the spread of the spray.

&#8220Glyphosate and 2,4-D are found in the common over-the-counter weed killers like Round-up and Weed-B-Gone,” Piper said. &#8220Oust Extra is a professional-use herbicide.”

Piper added that the spray would include 18 ounces of the first two ingredients to 3 ounces of Oust Extra for every 40 gallons of water.

&#8220The chemicals will be pretty diluted by the time we spray them,” Piper said. &#8220Just enough to cause the invasive plants to starve themselves to death.”

Railroad spokesman Tim Thompson wanted to address concerns that the program would include aerial spraying.

&#8220The spray will be applied by a truck riding on the tracks,” Thompson said. &#8220There won't be airplanes doing crop dusting. A boom from the truck, which will apply the spray, will be about six inches from the top of the track. This will limit the spread of the herbicide beyond the main gravel bed which the track sits on.”

The use of herbicides, especially the combination the railroad hopes to use, is common practice for most of the nation's major railways, according to Piper.

&#8220Burlington Northern, Amtrak and even the two major rail lines in Canada use the same herbicide mixture,” Piper said. &#8220It's the industry standard.”

Gary Nyberg, of Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railroad, oversees the use of chemical herbicides on more than 34,000 miles of track. He said he believes chemicals can be used effectively without having a detrimental effect on the environment.

&#8220Critical to the success of current and future weed-control programs is implementation of chemical prescriptions based on environmental stewardship,” Nyberg said. &#8220With repeated applications of the same herbicides, plants can build up a tolerance or resistance to that chemistry.”

Limiting the application of the herbicide is the goal of the railroad.

&#8220If we can eliminate the bulk of the weeds with the first spraying, we would be able to reduce the amount of spray required each year,” Piper explained.

One of the big concerns of the railroad and DEC is the protection of streams, rivers and other bodies of water near the tracks.

&#8220It's important that the herbicide used has no impact on the fish and wildlife which depend on the countless waterways near the track,” said Sandra Woods, research analyst with DEC.

&#8220The railroad will have to adhere to a strict set of buffer distances when applying the spray. Measures must also be taken to ensure the spray

doesn't carry outside the target area.”

Thompson said he understands that the thought of spraying herbicides is frightening to a lot of people.

&#8220People immediately think of DDT and all the problems that came with it,” Thompson said. &#8220The railroad wants to address those concerns and answer any other questions people may have about the program.”

In cooperation with DEC, the railroad will host two public meetings in the Mat-Su Valley next week. The first will be Tuesday at Evangelo's Restaurant in Wasilla, and the second at VFW Post 3836 in Talkeetna on Wednesday. Both meetings will start at 4:30 p.m.

A complete description of the railroad's vegetation and management/weed control plan is available on its Web page, www.akrr.com, under the information link.

&#8220I would encourage anyone with concerns about the use of herbicides to review the information on the Web and attend one of the meetings,” Thompson said. &#8220It is our goal to address the concerns of the people while developing an environmentally safe procedure to address the invasive-weed problem we're facing.”

Contact Darrell L. Breese at 352-2267 or at darrell.breese

@frontiersman.com.