Streams, wetlands to be restored as railroad settles claims

By Mary Manning

Thursday, Aug. 6, 2009 | 3:58 p.m.

The Union Pacific Railroad agreed Thursday to settle claims and restore 122 acres containing mountain and desert waters after a January 2005 flood in Southern Nevada posed a chemical threat when a train was washed off its tracks.

The U.S. Justice Department and Environmental Protection Agency announced the agreement that will cost the railroad almost $32 million.

As part of the settlement, Union Pacific will restore 21 sections in Clover Creek in northeastern Clark County and Meadow Valley Wash in Lincoln County.

The agreement also requires Union Pacific to monitor eight major restoration areas for at least five years.

The work will include removing illegal fill, restoring, monitoring and maintaining the ecosystem, re-planting natural vegetation and removing invasive species.

The total cost of the settlement is estimated at $31 million. Union Pacific will also pay $800,000 in civil penalties.

The settlement reached Thursday involves alleged violations brought against the railroad under the Clean Water Act after the Union Pacific tried to repair damaged track in Clover Creek and Meadow Valley Wash following a major flood in January 2005.

As the company rushed to repair damages to its track, it also did non-emergency construction and stream alteration work without getting the required Clean Water Act permits, which could have helped to minimize the damage to the streams.

The Bureau of Land Management ordered the railroad to stop work in April 2005 in the Meadow Valley Wash because of threats to wilderness areas and archaeological sites. However, the settlement concerns a threat to natural streams and wetlands.

Floodwaters fueled by rain and melting snow in Lincoln County dumped a torrent of muddy water into the Meadow Valley Wash and Clover Creek during a series of winter storms and undermined the tracks where a train had been parked for about a week.

No one was on the train during the flood, but six tankers carrying remnants of hazardous chemicals and eight carloads of contaminated soil on the way to a Utah landfill prompted investigations by Union Pacific and the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection at the time. No contamination was found at the time.

Union Pacific's unauthorized discharges included building massive structures to control stream flows, such as dikes, berms, levees and diversions within existing streams. The structures ranged from five to 15 feet high and from 20 to thousands of feet long, EPA investigators found.

"This settlement will restore Clover Creek and Meadow Valley Wash," said acting assistant Attorney General John C. Cruden.

"We are pleased that this agreement will result in the restoration of important mountain-desert streams and habitat for the state of Nevada," said Cruden, for the Justice Department's Environment and Natural Resources Division.

"Meadow Valley Wash and Clover Creek are valuable, sensitive water resources which provide habitat to many fish species and endangered wildlife, such as the desert tortoise and southwestern willow flycatcher (a bird)," said Laura Yoshii, acting regional EPA administrator for the Pacific Southwest region.

"This significant settlement underscores EPA's commitment to protect valuable water resources in Nevada," Yoshii said.

The Clean Water Act requires anyone building within national waterways to get permits when altering them. The Army Corps of Engineers issues permits to discharge fill in water bodies. The state of Nevada is authorized to issue National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permits for discharging pollutants in storm water from construction sites.

The proposed consent decree filed in the U.S. District Court in Las Vegas is subject to a 30-day comment period and final court approval. A copy of the proposed consent decree is available on the Justice Department Web site.