IDL OKs permit for 2nd BNSF bridge
This rendering shows a new bridge paralleling the existing bridge across Lake Pend Oreille. (Image courtesy BSNF RAILWAY CO.)
(Image courtesy BNSF RAILWAY CO.) This rendering shows a new bridge that would be constructed across Bridge Street.
(Image courtesy BSNF RAILWAY CO.) This rendering shows what a new bridge across Sand Creek would look like.
SANDPOINT — The Idaho Department of Lands granted BNSF Railway Co. permit approval Friday to construct a second railroad bridge across Lake Pend Oreille.
The approval comes a month after the agency conducted public hearings in Ponderay and Sandpoint, where the bridge proposal encountered both support and opposition.
Supporters argued a second span would facilitate commerce by eliminating a bottleneck at the existing century-old span across the lake, which forces freight trains to halt while other trains cross the bridge. Supporters also contend the new bridge will reduce blockages at at-grade railroad crossings, resulting in fewer holdups for motorists and emergency responders.
Opponents of the bridge assert a second bridge will result in an increase in rail traffic, which increases the likelihood of a train derailment and hazardous material spills into the lake. Bridge critics further argue that it will increase coal exports and crude oil shipments, which would exacerbate global climate change.
Sandpoint Mayor Shelby Rognstad testified that a spill would have a catastrophic effect on the community and urged for a rigorous analysis under the National Environmental Policy Act in the form of a Environmental Impact Statement, while Bonner County commissioners Glen Bailey and Dan McDonald said an EIS would be unnecessary overkill.
Calls for a full-blown EIS instead of a less rigorous Environmental Assessment was a frequent refrain among members of the public who also testified during the hearings.
Rognstad, Bailey and McDonald did not immediately respond to requests for comment late Friday afternoon on the outcome of IDL’s permit review.
“We are pleased with this milestone and look forward to moving through the permitting process,” BNSF spokeswoman Courtney Wallace said on Friday.
The proposal remains subject to federal permit review, in addition to review by the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality.
The Idaho Conservation League commented on IDL’s permit approval by directing attention to a 33-car BNSF Railway derailment that leaked oil into the Rock River in Doon, Iowa, on Friday morning. The extent of the hazardous material release was unspecified, according to a Des Moines Register news report. A news report by TV station KSFY stated that Rock Valley, a small city southwest of Doon, shut off its drinking water wells as a result of the tanker train derailment.
Comment from Wild Idaho Rising Tide, which recently held a public meeting in Sandpoint to highlight the perils of a second bridge it perceives, was pending on Friday night.
The IDL director’s final order transcripts from the public hearings, and other records can be viewed online on the Idaho Department of Lands’ website (https://www.idl.idaho.gov/lakes-rivers/lake-protection/index.html).
Keith Kinnaird can be reached by email at kkinnaird@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow him on Twitter @KeithDailyBee.