Cleanup of corn spill may take months

An elaborate effort to secure and clean up a sizable corn spill along railroad tracks in the Middle Fork Flathead River corridor is under way and may take up to three months to complete, a state bear management specialist said Tuesday.

"There's no doubt that it will attract bears," said Erik Wenum of Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks. "Even though we've been dry lately," in areas where the corn is on the ground in the vegetation, "that corn is already moist and it's beginning to ferment. We're scheduled to get rain this evening. As soon as the corn's wet, within about 24 hours it will begin the fermentation process, and then every bear in the hills will know about this corn spill."

The effort to secure the spill site will involve installation of an electrified fence on both sides of the tracks, for a distance of about 800 yards, Wenum said.

The spill resulted from a Friday derailment near Essex involving a train with 111 freight cars that damaged both mainline tracks in the river corridor. The day of the spill, three cars were on their sides.

In an effort to reopen the tracks as quickly as possible, 23 cars that could not be rerailed were pushed out of the way, resulting in most of those cars spilling more corn, much of it sliding down an embankment next to the tracks, Wenum said.

"They've got to get those tracks open, so when they push them over the edge, a car that was upright … goes tumbling down the hill and out goes the contents," Wenum said. "There's no doubt that they made a bigger spill in terms of content when they do that. But at the same time they have to get the line open, and we understand that. We have a partnership to get these sites contained and cleaned up."

After visiting the site with Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad officials and planning the cleanup on Tuesday, Wenum estimates there are 13 to 15 carloads of corn on the ground. Each car carried 110 tons of corn.

"All of them spilled to some degree," he said. "Some of them are completely empty, maybe six to eight of them, and then another dozen are half full and two or three that are mostly full."

Securing the area has required considerable logistical planning but it's a drill that Wenum is familiar with. Over the last decade, there have been several spills in the Middle Fork corridor.

That prompted formation of the Great Northern Environmental Stewardship Area, a partnership between state and federal agencies and the railroad that led to better-coordinated and more-effective cleanup efforts.

Before the program was in place, spills tended to attract grizzly bears that were hit by trains.

Last week's spill was substantial, but Wenum says it is more manageable than some previous spills.

"It's a sizable spill, but we've had bigger," he said.

Wenum said the railroad will pay for fence construction that should start today, and it will contract for the services of the Wind River Bear Institute, a Utah-based outfit that frequently assists the state in bear management efforts.

Wind River personnel will patrol the spill area, mostly at the ends of the fence perimeter that are left open so trains can pass through.

"There's a lot of corn on the ground, and a lot of it went down into the trees," Wenum said. "This is a fence that has to go down into the woods so that it's fully contained. When it's all said and done, there will be close to a mile of fence."

Motion-activated noise makers called "Critter Getters" will be set up in strategic locations on the fencing perimeter.

"They put out a piercing 110-decibel screaming noise," Wenum said. "We'll use those along with people patrols at the open ends of the fencing and at places where bears will begin to test the fence."

Meanwhile, the railroad will concentrate on cleaning up the spilled corn, mostly with heavy equipment and huge vacuums mounted on rail cars or trucks. As of Tuesday, two vacuum trucks were on site, Wenum said.

From past experience, Wenum estimates the cleanup could take two or three months to complete.

The cause of the derailment is under investigation. Burlington Northern officials say the train was traveling westbound at the 25 mph speed limit that is designated for the Essex area.

Both lines of track reopened Saturday afternoon.

Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by e-mail at jmann@dailyinterlake.com