State settles 1999 ARRC Gold Creek spill

JUNEAU -- The Alaska Railroad Corp. will pay $125,054 to the state for civil assessments and oil spill penalties related to the Dec. 22, 1999, Gold Creek Jet-A fuel spill.

Attorney General Gregg Renkes announced the settlement Thursday, and said the money will go to resolve the state's claims for civil assessments and penalties arising out of the fuel spill and cleanup.

The 1999 spill took place in the Talkeetna area when 10 tank cars loaded with Jet-A fuel overturned, 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.

According to information in a press release from Renkes' office, the railroad has paid more than $52,000 to reimburse state oversight costs incurred over the last year. Future cleanup and restoration costs incurred by the state Department of Environmental Conservation, State Parks, Fish and Game and the Department of Law will be reimbursed by ARRC, as required by law, Renkes said.

ARRC Public Affairs Officer Patrick Flynn said future cleanup costs aren't likely, as the site has been stable since shortly after the spill.

"Little is left to be done," Flynn said. "The plume … hasn't moved, really, since the initial spill. If it did, and the river were to be placed at risk, we're responsible for activating our response. Nobody expects that to happen, but if it does, we will."

Flynn said ARRC will continue to monitor the sentinel wells put in place near the spill site for potential changes.

Additionally, according to the press release, ARRC will complete site restoration work requested by Alaska State Parks by October 2004. The work involves the removal of structures, gravel pads and preparing the site for natural re-vegetation.

Flynn said much of the site restoration work has been done, but anything not done at this point will be wrapped up.

The parties reached the settlement after groundwater sampling, monitoring and modeling have shown over time that the contamination plume at the Gold Creek site north of Talkeetna is stable and that ongoing monitoring was an appropriate remedy at the site.

"I am very happy that we could settle this contentious dispute left unresolved by the Knowles administration," Renkes said in the press release. "The public benefits when we work together solving problems and keeping our focus on the larger objectives -- in this case, protecting the environment and running a profitable and hopefully expanding railroad."

The settled claims, according to information from the press release, had been left unresolved by an April 2001 consent decree between the state and ARRC, in which ARRC paid the state $731,500 and the incident resulted in legislation that requires the Alaska Railroad to have an improved contingency plan.

Flynn said that contingency plan is in place, and ARRC has contracted with Alaska Chadux Corp. to provide emergency spill response if needed. Beyond spill response, Flynn said, ARRC is learning to better respond to emergency situations. Communication during the response to the spill, Flynn said, was one of the challenges ARRC faced during the Gold Creek spill, and the corporation has worked to overcome that challenge.

"A big part of it is the adoption of something called an ICS, or Incident Command System," Flynn said. "[We adopted] a standard language for responding to an incident."

Making sure everyone understands commands, situation assessments and other critical response data has helped speed response time, Flynn said, as has conducting regular emergency drills and working with other companies who have similar plans in place to find new ideas. ARRC is better prepared to respond, Flynn said, but they're happy to see the case settled.

"We can move forward," Flynn said. "An unfortunate chapter in our history has closed."