The facts don't matter, Baykeeper is looking for deep pockets, and using "their" weight to meddle in politics.
'Balloon Track' lawsuit looming
by Wendy Butler, 2/2/2006
Local nonprofit organization Humboldt Baykeeper has issued a notice of intent to sue Union Pacific Railroad Co. over what the group claims are violations of federal Clean Water Act and other state and federal laws on the railroad’s Eureka Rail Yard, or “Balloon Track.”
The Baykeeper move comes less than a week before the Eureka City Council will consider a Security National petition to rezone the 29.45-acre property between Waterfront Drive and Washington Street from “Public” to “General Services Commercial” and “Waterfront Commercial.”
Security National and Union Pacific reached a Balloon Track purchase agreement in December.
If the parcel is rezoned, SN plans to put retail development, offices and light industry on it.
The parcel has been vacant for more than 35 years and its soil is contaminated by toxic chemicals.
Humboldt Baykeeper calls itself a group “dedicated to the protection of Humboldt Bay, the coast, and the public health of our community.”
Program Director Pete Nichols said that Union Pacific has “serious and ongoing violations of the federal Clean Water Act and Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, as well as California’s Hazardous Waste Control Act.”
The Water Quality Control Board submitted a remedial action plan in 2002 and conducted “soil hot-spot” removals of heavy metals, such as lead, zinc and copper.
In 2003, Union Pacific Public Affairs Director John Bromley told The Eureka Reporter that the lead-removal work was nearly completed.
Nichols said Baykeeper got some of its information about remaining toxins from the Water Quality Control Board and some from its own monitoring.
“This site contains many dangerously toxic contaminants — lead, pentachlorophenol, chromium, oil and gasoline and other solvents …” he said. “Many of the pollutants that we know that are existing on the site are moving into Humboldt Bay. … They go directly from storm water runoff (and) the ground water underneath the Balloon Track is tidally influenced (and) ultimately moving into the bay.”
As part of its contractual arrangements with Union Pacific, SN has agreed to assume the responsibility for the cleanup.
Nichols said Baykeeper has not contacted Union Pacific directly. It sent a legal document to its “registered agent” outlining Baykeeper concerns.
Union Pacific did not return The Eureka Reporter’s phone calls by press deadline.
“Any cleanup on this site will be development-driven … although I don’t know precisely when it would be,” SN Senior Vice President Brian Morrissey said. “(It would) be related to a zoning change and a project being approved.
“Union Pacific is certainly complying with the monitoring requirements. … We expect to be privy to the results of those tests.”
He added that he didn’t know how often Union Pacific tests the soil.
“To my knowledge Union Pacific has fully complied with all the rules and regulations,” Morrissey said. “This lawsuit is against Union Pacific and not Security National. … At this point it is Union Pacific’s (choice) how and (in) what manner to respond to the allegation.”
Nichols said his group is giving Union Pacific 60 days “to address our concerns … which are the ultimate cleanup and discharge of pollutants into Humboldt Bay and start to look at the problem a little more seriously.”
He said his group wants “a better assessment of what the contamination is on the site.”
“The cleanup that has been done is not adequate,” Nichols said. “Union Pacific has not had a federal permit under the Clean Water Act to discharge pollutants into the waters of the U.S.”
He added that he didn’t know whether Union Pacific ever had a permit, but “from our records it seems the permit expired in 1981.”
When told that SN will assume responsibility for the cleanup, Nichols said, “rezoning will (make it) really difficult to get the site cleaned up.”
“Any proposal to clean it up under commercial zoning would be inadequate to the protection of the public health,” he said.
Morrissey said that when the City Council considers the rezoning request it will consider “environmental conditions.”
“If Security National acquires this parcel and cleans it, it will fully comply with all state and federal and local requirements, regulations and laws,” he said. “It will be fully adequate by definition of following those laws and regulations.”
(Security National owns The Eureka Reporter.)
Copyright (C) 2005, The Eureka Reporter. All rights reserved.
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