Lawsuit Targets Railway Over Concerns That Its Coal Cars Violate CWA
By Peak Johnson
In Seattle, a trial in a lawsuit by several environmental groups looking to force BNSF Railway to cover its coal train loads to prevent water pollution began this month.
The plaintiffs argued that dust and particles from coal trains that fall into water bodies are a violation against the federal Clean Water Act.
In a press release obtained by The Seattle Times, BNSF said that “its loading rule for coal shippers using its tracks out of the Powder River Basin in Montana and Wyoming ‘virtually eliminates any issues with coal dust — both at the mines and in the Pacific Northwest.’”
The loading rule includes a requirement that coal loads should be shaped in order to reduce wind action on the surface of the load, that is also sealed with a topping agent.
“We are confident in our legal arguments and the truth is that BNSF has been at the forefront of coal dust research for more than a decade,” the company said in its release.
The Sierra Club, Spokane Riverkeeper, Friends of the Columbia Gorge, and others argue “that coal chunks and coal dust fall off BNSF trains through holes in the rail cars, when coal trains encounter rough tracks, or get blown from open-top rail cars during high winds or fast speeds,” per The Bellingham Herald.
KING 5 reported that the first witness in the hearing, a photographer named Paul Anderson, presented photos to the judge hoping to demonstrate that coal is leaving rail cars on a regular basis and entering water in places like Ballard or the Columbia River in Washington.
"I said in testimony that we can't live with thousands of paper cuts. It will be bad," Anderson said.
BNSF said that since Anderson is no expert in the field of coal, “his testimony about coal is questionable.”
BNSF told KING 5 that they are “confident” in their arguments at trial.
"We developed a coal loading rule that virtually eliminates any issues with coal dust,” Courtney Wallace, a BNSF spokesperson, wrote to KING 5 in an email.
The Seattle Times reported that since the case is about material that entered the water with no discharge permit, thus violating the Clean Water Act, “the ruling could have implications for other loads and other railroads.”
Northwest Public Radio reported that in October, U.S. District Court Judge John Coughenhour agreed with several environmental groups “that BNSF’s trains are ‘point sources’ of coal pollution under the federal Clean Water Act.”
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