The BNSF Hauser Refueling Facility is a rail yard and fueling station located near Rathdrum, Idaho, owned and operated by the BNSF Railway Company]] which was completed in 2004. [1] The facility serves as a critical refueling point for BNSF trains that traverse the northern United States transcontinental. [2] [1]
The facility features several large fuel storage tanks, capable of holding thousands of gallons of diesel fuel. The facility moves 250,000 gallons of fuel daily and almost 7 million per month. [1] These tanks are connected to a network of pumps and hoses that allow trains to be refueled quickly and efficiently. In addition to fueling services, the facility also provides routine maintenance and repair services for BNSF locomotives and railcars. [3] [1] [2]
The BNSF Hauser Refueling Facility is strategically located near several major highways and transportation hubs, making it a key logistics center for the transportation of goods throughout the Pacific Northwest and beyond. [2]
The construction of the fueling facility for BNSF's Hauser Refueling Depot involved several protection measures to safeguard the environment around it. [1] These measures included two high-density underground containment liners with leak detection, double-walled underground piping, and double-bottom diesel storage tanks. Above ground, locomotive fueling takes place on reinforced concrete platforms coated with an industrial seal to contain water run-off. Additionally, the facility is computer-controlled with sensors monitoring all aspects of the facility. [3] [1] [2] The Hauser Refueling Facility serves as a crucial location for the BNSF railroad, covering the nation from Chicago into Canada and down the West Coast, transporting essential goods like grains, fuel, energy products, medicine, paper, and food. The construction was initially controversial, but ultimately deemed an improvement over sandwiching a fuel tender between locomotives as BNSF (and before 1996, Burlington Northern) had done until 2000. [4] The Hauser Refueling Facility was completed in 2004. [1]
28 to 35 locomotives are serviced through a quick-stop process every day, which enables the trains to transport freight more efficiently and reduces wait times. [5] [1] The Hauser refueling facility is a significant source of employment in the area, generating hundreds of jobs. [1] Moreover, the facility has raised the bar in environmental protection by implementing advanced environmental monitoring and detection systems. In fact, no other facility throughout North Idaho or the Spokane Valley has this level of environmental monitoring and detection systems. The ground under the refueling pad is lined with impermeable material to prevent any contamination from seeping into the groundwater. [5] [1] [2] However, the recent wastewater spill at the facility has raised questions about the effectiveness of these protective measures, as the transfer pipes intended to carry wastewater to nearby holding tanks were not lined with impermeable material, leading to contamination of the Spokane Aquifer, the sole source of drinking water for 400,000 people in northern Idaho and northeast Washington. [3] [1]
In December 2004, a wastewater spill occurred at the Hauser Refueling Facility owned by Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Co. [3] [1] Small amounts of petroleum-laced wastewater reached the Spokane Aquifer, the sole source of drinking water for 400,000 people in northern Idaho and northeast Washington. [3] [1] Preliminary tests showed no immediate threat to drinking water, but Washington state agencies formed a network to monitor the situation and push for more scrutiny of potential sources of contamination. [3] [1] The chemical components of diesel fuel found in a monitoring well violated certain Washington standards that Idaho does not have. [3] [1] The railroad may be required to dig up soil under the broken pipes to prevent further contamination. [3] [1] Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Co. apologized and vowed to take measures to ensure another spill won't happen. [3] [1]
Rathdrum is a city in Kootenai County, Idaho, United States. The population was 6,826 at the 2010 census, up from 4,816 in 2000. It is part of the Coeur d'Alene Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes the entire county. It is named after Rathdrum, a village in County Wicklow, Ireland.
Lamont is a town in Whitman County, Washington, United States. The population was 79 at the 2020 census.
The Union Pacific Railroad is a Class I freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over 32,200 miles (51,800 km) routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Pacific is the second largest railroad in the United States after BNSF, with which it shares a duopoly on transcontinental freight rail lines in the Western, Midwestern and West South Central United States.
BNSF Railway is the largest freight railroad in the United States. One of six North American Class I railroads, BNSF has 36,000 employees, 33,400 miles (53,800 km) of track in 28 states, and over 8,000 locomotives. It has three transcontinental routes that provide rail connections between the western and eastern United States. BNSF trains traveled over 169 million miles in 2010, more than any other North American railroad.
The Burlington Northern Railroad was a United States-based railroad company formed from a merger of four major U.S. railroads. Burlington Northern operated between 1970 and 1995.
The Spokane, Portland & Seattle Railway was a railroad in the northwest United States. Incorporated in 1905, it was a joint venture by the Great Northern Railway and the Northern Pacific Railway to build a railroad along the north bank of the Columbia River. The railroad later built or acquired other routes in Oregon. The SP&S was merged into the Burlington Northern in March, 1970. Remnants of the line are currently operated by BNSF Railway and the Portland and Western Railroad.
Montana Rail Link was a privately held Class II railroad in the United States. It operated on trackage originally built by the Northern Pacific Railway and leased from its successor BNSF Railway. MRL was a unit of The Washington Companies and was headquartered in Missoula, Montana.
The EMD SD9 is a model of diesel locomotive built by General Motors Electro-Motive Division between January 1954 and June 1959. An EMD 567C 16-cylinder engine generated 1,750 horsepower (1.30 MW). Externally similar to its predecessor, the SD7, the SD9 was built with the improved and much more maintainable 567C engine.
The Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility is a military fuel storage facility in Hawaii. Operated by the United States Navy, Red Hill supports U.S. military operations in the Pacific.
The Spokane International Railroad was a short line railroad between Spokane, Washington, and the Canadian Pacific Railway (CP) at Kingsgate, British Columbia. The line became an important one for the CP with its connections to the Union Pacific Railroad and Portland, Oregon.
Spokane, Portland & Seattle 700 is the oldest and only surviving example of the class "E-1" 4-8-4 "Northern" type steam locomotive and the only surviving "original" Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway steam locomotive. It was built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in May 1938. Nearly identical to the class "A-3" Northerns built for Northern Pacific Railway, it burns oil instead of coal.
The Northern Transcon, a route operated by the BNSF Railway, traverses the most northerly route of any railroad in the western United States. This route was originally part of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad, Northern Pacific Railway, Great Northern Railway and Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway systems, merged into the Burlington Northern Railroad system in 1970.
State Highway 41 (SH-41) is a state highway mostly in the U.S. state of Idaho. It runs from Interstate 90 in Post Falls to U.S. Route 2 on the Washington state line. The northernmost 0.41 miles (0.66 km) of SH-41 run along State Street along the state line, with the southbound lane in the town of Newport, Washington, and the northbound lane in Oldtown, Idaho. The part of the highway in Washington is designated State Route 41 (SR 41).
The Washington and Idaho Railway was a shortline railroad that operated in the area south of Spokane, Washington, connecting the BNSF Railway at Marshall to Palouse, Washington, Harvard, Idaho, and Moscow, Idaho. It began operations in 2006 on ex-Northern Pacific Railway and Washington, Idaho and Montana Railway trackage formerly operated by the Palouse River and Coulee City Railroad, which had acquired it from the Burlington Northern Railroad in 1996. The railroad ceased operations in 2019 as a new operator gained control of the line.
State Highway 53 (SH-53) is a 14.240-mile-long (22.917 km) state highway serving Kootenai County in the U.S. state of Idaho. SH-53 travels northeast from Washington State Route 290 at the Washington state border near Hauser to a short concurrency with SH-41 in Rathdrum. From Rathdrum, the highway continues east to end at U.S. Route 95 (US-95) north of Hayden. The Hauser to Rathdrum segment first appeared on a map in 1926, while the continuation of the route to the Hayden area appeared in 1937, completing an unnumbered state highway. SH-53 was designated in 1953 after all unnumbered state highways were assigned numbers.
Groundwater pollution occurs when pollutants are released to the ground and make their way into groundwater. This type of water pollution can also occur naturally due to the presence of a minor and unwanted constituent, contaminant, or impurity in the groundwater, in which case it is more likely referred to as contamination rather than pollution. Groundwater pollution can occur from on-site sanitation systems, landfill leachate, effluent from wastewater treatment plants, leaking sewers, petrol filling stations, hydraulic fracturing (fracking) or from over application of fertilizers in agriculture. Pollution can also occur from naturally occurring contaminants, such as arsenic or fluoride. Using polluted groundwater causes hazards to public health through poisoning or the spread of disease.
The Spokane Valley–Rathdrum Prairie (SVRP) Aquifer is an aquifer in the northwest United States, underlying 370 square miles in eastern Washington and northern Idaho.
Barstow Yard is a classification yard operated by Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway (BNSF) in Barstow, California. With 48 directional tracks and a total area of approximately 600 acres (240 ha), it is the second largest classification yard west of the Rocky Mountains after the JR Davis Yard. Today, almost all freight traffic to and from Southern California runs through the junction.
The Red Hill water crisis is a public health crisis and environmental disaster caused by fuel leaking from the Red Hill Underground Fuel Storage Facility into the freshwater aquifer underneath the island of Oʻahu. Residents in military housing in and around Joint Base Pearl Harbor–Hickam began reporting chemical contamination in their tap water near the end of November 2021, and the Hawaiʻi Department of Health advised residents to stop using their tap water on November 29, 2021. All residents of the area were unable to use their tap water until the following March, after their water system was flushed of contaminants.