The removal of contaminated sediment left in Whitefish Lake by a 1989 train derailment and fuel spill is scheduled to begin today in Mackinaw Bay and should be finished by the end of June.

BNSF Railway Co. will extract about 450 cubic yards of petroleum-laden sludge while the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency oversees the work.

The historic derailment of a Burlington Northern freight train dumped thousands of gallons of diesel fuel into Whitefish Lake. Two separate cleanup operations followed in the area between the tracks and the shoreline, but neither of those remediation projects addressed the contamination in Mackinaw Bay, EPA on-scene coordinator Steve Merritt said.

Over the past 23 years, several reports of residual sheen and petroleum hydrocarbons in the lake sediment have been investigated and confirmed by various government agencies and stakeholders such as the Whitefish Lake Institute.

BNSF began staging equipment at Mackinaw Bay on the west side of the lake two weeks ago, using a tugboat to push the work platform and dredge into place.

“We have everything for the work put in the lake,” Merritt said.

“This week they’ve been calibrating the GPS-guided dredge system so we can reach all the sediments we need to.”

High winds shut down work on Wednesday, but “providing the weather cooperates, we’re looking to start moving material on Thursday,” Merritt said Wednesday afternoon.

The removal involves excavating the contaminated soil and placing it into two lined receptacles on the barge. The barge will be pushed across the lake to City Beach, where a 65-ton crane set up at the boat ramp will place the receptacles onto trucks.

One of the two boat-ramp lanes will be closed for the duration of the project to allow for the sediment transfer, Merrill said.

The cleanup work won’t affect recreational activities at City Beach, he added.

Polluted sediment goes through a three-stage treatment process at the BNSF rail yard before the solids are dried and shipped by rail to a disposal facility in North Dakota.

The barges will make four to six round trips each day during the dredging process, Merrill said. Each round trip will haul about 10 cubic yards of sediment.

BNSF is using the same treatment system for both the Mackinaw Bay project and the continuing Whitefish River cleanup that should be completed in September.

River cleanup currently is under way in the Kay Beller Park area and will proceed downstream to the Spokane Avenue bridge.

Merrill briefed the Whitefish City Council Monday on both remediation projects and addressed lingering concerns over the inspection system used to detect aquatic invasive species.

He assured the council that the level of inspection exceeds what’s required under Montana state law.

A work platform brought in from California was flagged for carrying saltwater barnacles and was scraped and pressure-washed prior to its entry into Whitefish Lake, Merrill said. The same process was used on cleanup barges brought in from Michigan after fragments of a zebra mussel shell were discovered.

Merrill said the cleaning protocol for decontaminating vessels was conducted on all equipment, whether or not it was flagged.

In addition to EPA oversight, the U.S. Coast Guard will have a full-time presence for the duration of the lake project, Merrill said.

Whitefish residents can follow the cleanup progress online; go to www.epaosc.org/mackinawbaypetroleumsheens.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by email at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.