The Hungry Horse News
Railroad claims more study needed in avalanche zones, By HEIDI DESCH

Plans for controlling avalanches along Glacier National Park’s southern boundary range from doing nothing to using military artillery to remove snow. …

The draft outlines four alternative forms of action. One is a no action alternative which maintains the status quo, a plan that calls for extending and adding snowsheds, an alternative that permits blasting avalanches for up to 10 years with a commitment from the company to construct snowsheds and an alternative that allows the railroad to blast avalanche chutes when need be indefinitely. … [mjh: the blasting option is favored by Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad (BNSF)]

Steve Thompson, with the National Parks Conservation Association, said the snowshed alternative is the “most effective and most safe” approach.

“The best way to deal with it is snowsheds, not by firing Howitzers up into the Park,” he said in an interview this week.

He said the environmental risks are the least with that alternative.

The railroad, however, wants the environmental review to be delayed to allow for more analysis. …

“We know enough to know that the best is snowsheds,” [Thompson] said.

Snowsheds would have to be extended less than a mile. The estimated cost of building the additional snowsheds would be more than $5 million, according to the document.

BNSF has also said it would be too expensive to extend snowsheds in the area.

It’s a response that Thompson doesn’t buy.

Thompson said the company has shown “record profit” recently. The railroad has been running lines profitably across the continental divide for decades and has never had to blast before, he noted.

He said using explosives may be less expensive up front, but building snowsheds would be the best long-term solution.