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DEQ will hold meeting on Livingston rail yard clean-up project

The meeting will be Thursday from 7-9pm at the City/County Complex in Livingston
Posted at 2:39 PM, Jan 22, 2020
and last updated 2020-01-22 16:39:19-05

DEQ officials will hold a public meeting and present on the site’s areas of contamination and an update on the clean up process so far.

The state Superfund site is in Livingston, and is about two miles long and half a mile wide.

It includes an active rail yard used by Montana Rail Link, which was formerly operated by BNSF.

BNSF has already been working to clean up the site for years.

DEQ Project Officer, Eric Woodland, says there have been big improvements, but there’s still plenty of work left to do.

“The clean-up in Livingston is actually fairly complex in that there’s not just one chemical there and it’s not just in one place. So the cleanup or closure if you will, kind of happens in phase,” said Woodland.

“We’ve ticked off several phases and we know that we’re good there. But we still have a few to go.”

In a statement BNSF said:

“BNSF has been working cooperatively with DEQ and much progress has been made to advance the cleanup at the site in Livingston. In addition, BNSF has also been working closely with the Livingston Restoration Group (LRG) to incorporate LRG proposed work that complies with the settlement agreement into the larger cleanup efforts at the site.”

The meeting will be this Thursday from 7-9pm in the community room at the City/County Complex.

You can learn more about the DEQ railyard clean-up Project in Livingston here: http://deq.mt.gov/Land/statesuperfund/bnlivingston