DEQ Releases Record of Decision for Cleanup of Burlington Northern Missoula State Superfund Facility in Missoula County
HELENA – Today the Montana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) released its Record of Decision (ROD) that outlines the requirements for cleanup of the Burlington Northern Missoula State Superfund Facility (Facility) in Missoula, Mont. The ROD is the decision document that selects the final cleanup for the Facility. The decision was made under the authority of the State Superfund law, the Comprehensive Environmental Cleanup and Responsibility Act to ensure protectiveness of human health and the environment. The remedial action described in the ROD is based on previous documents including the Remedial Investigation, Risk Assessment, Feasibility Study and the Proposed Plan.
The selected remedy is designed to address remaining contamination including free product (diesel fuel floating on top of groundwater), contaminated groundwater and contaminated deep subsurface/smear zone soils at the Facility. The selected remedy requires the responsible party, BNSF Railway Company (BNSF), to clean up the railyard portion of the Facility soils to commercial/industrial cleanup levels and groundwater to Montana numeric water quality standards. The ROD also includes restrictions intended to prevent exposure to contamination until cleanup levels are met. These include land use restrictions to limit use of BNSF-owned property to commercial/industrial use as well as restrictions on the use of groundwater.
The remedy was selected because it meets statutory requirements and is expected to achieve substantial risk reduction in a cost-effective manner. Cleanup and long-term monitoring will continue until cleanup is complete, which is expected to take 30 years. BNSF will be responsible for the cleanup at an estimated cost of $3,531,000.
DEQ issued the Proposed Plan document for the Facility in February of 2021 and has accepted and responded to both written and oral public comment. DEQ appreciates the public’s interest in the cleanup of this site. Although no significant changes were made to the final remedy selection based on public comment, comments were incorporated into the ROD when appropriate. Part 3 of the ROD includes a responsiveness summary that addresses the comments received during the comment period.
The ROD will be available for viewing at the DEQ Waste Management and Remediation Division (1225 Cedar St in Helena), the Mansfield Library (32 Campus Dr., Missoula) and the Missoula Public Library (455 E Main, Missoula). It will also be temporarily posted online at: https://deq.mt.gov/public/publicnotice.
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