Brownfields Update for the Pacific Northwest

Six years ago, John Kolbe of Harrison, Idaho, was thinking about leaving this small town in the Idaho Panhandle. An aircraft mechanic, Kolbe couldn’t find much work in a town of about 250 people.

But then Kolbe had an idea. He heard of plans to convert the old railroad tracks running along Harrison’s lakeside into a biking trail. Kolbe had heard of other rail-to-trails projects before. The trails often times drew thousands of recreationists, spurring economic growth along their routes. So Kolbe opened Pedal Pushers, a bike rental and repair shop, three years before the Trail of the Coeur d’Alenes officially did in 2004. Kolbe’s business has seen solid, steady growth. A kayak business, art gallery and gift shop also opened. Bed and breakfasts seem to be popping up everywhere.

“It’s looking good,” Kolbe says. “I think we’re just starting to see the tip of the iceberg.”

The Trail of the Coeur d’Alenes is certainly encouraging economic growth in northern Idaho. The 72-mile paved path follows the former Union Pacific rail line as it once meandered through mountain mining towns and along the Coeur d’Alene River and Coeur d’Alene Lake. The trail draws people by the thousands.

For its ingenuity and economic redevelopment, the trail was named the winner of the 2006 Phoenix Award for EPA Region 10. It will be among the award-winning projects honored at the November Brownfields 2006 national conference.

The Trail of the Coeur d’Alenes is a unique brownfields redevelopment because often times with these larger projects, the end result is not a public space, says Ed Moreen, EPA project manager based on Lake Coeur d’Alene.

“From EPA’s perspective, it is an innovative employment of CERCLA (Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act),” Moreen says. “It was a way to take a rail embankment that was highly contaminated and turn it into a public corridor.”

The trail was originally followed by the Coeur d’Alene Indians and later an important rail line in northern Idaho. Tons of ore concentrate once traveled down the tracks from the Silver Valley Mining District. Some of the concentrate and rock spilled along the way, leaving lead and other heavy metal pollution. In 1993, trains stopped using the line but the contaminants stayed.

Looking to get the metals-contaminated right-of-way cleaned up, a partnership formed between the Coeur d’Alene Tribe, EPA, state of Idaho and Union Pacific. The group negotiated a settlement, with Union Pacific paying for the $48.8 million project, which stretches from Mullan to Plummer.

The cleanup actions included removal of mine waste on the reservation, in residential areas and in seven “oasis” areas designated as rest stops. About 175,000 cubic yards of contaminated soil was removed from the right-of-way. All rails and ties were salvaged. Any remaining metals in the rail bed are contained beneath the asphalt trail surface.

Along most of the trail, contamination wasn’t removed but rather capped. In most areas, it didn’t make sense to clean up contamination on either side of the trail, where flooding can occur, says Nick Zilka of the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality. Along the trail is signage cautioning users to stay on the trail and educating them about the remaining contamination.

Transfer of the trail’s land from Union Pacific is expected to be completed in two months, says Phillip Cernera, director of the tribe’s Coeur d’Alene Lake Management Department. Most of the trail will be transferred to state ownership, with about 15 miles of trail on the reservation going to the tribe.

Cernera recalls riding on a train, touring the rail line before the project started. Today, the trail is a “ribbon of clean that winds through contaminated lands,” he says.

“It will be a tool to use to educate people, to fight for further cleanup in the upper basin,” Cernera says.

About 110,000 people from all around the world will use the trail this year, says Bill Scudder, the trail’s park manager. Scudder sees new businesses opening to serve trail users, from bike shops like Kolbe’s to ice cream shops and inns. It’s also benefited local restaurants, hotels and campgrounds.

At about the center of the trail is Enaville Resort in Kingston. Owner Joe Peak is a founding member of the nonprofit group Friends of the Trail of the Coeur d’Alenes. In summer, more than half his business is from bike riders coming off the trail or the nearby Route of the Hiawatha, another rails-to-trails project. The nonprofit group estimates the trail will spark $15 million a year in new revenues, Peak says.

While the trail has been a “ready-made moneymaker” for the valley, Peak points to another community benefit. “It joins our community,” he says. “We know a lot more about Harrison now, and they know a lot more about us.”