Instructor Fact Sheet: Information Highlights on the Flowing Railroad Site
FRR Enterprises is the parent company that owns Flow Automations (currently operating) and the Flowing Railroad (no longer operating).
The Flowing Railroad site is an inactive train yard where locomotives were repaired and maintained.
The Flowing River borders the site to the east. It supplies fish that nearby families eat 3 to 4 times a week and feeds the aquifer that supplies drinking water and irrigation to homes, businesses, and farms (municipal wells and the irrigation intake are 3 miles downstream from the site).
8,000 people live within 1 mile of the site and 1,400 people live within 1/4 mile.
Contaminants identified by EPA sampling include:
The potential for contamination of the Flowing River and other surface water and groundwater (e.g., the aquifer) could be increased by rain and melting snow washing through contaminated areas.
Samples from a shallow well drilled at the site contained lead and a high concentration of TCE, but the actual extent of the contamination is unknown. The soils in a few areas of the site have been contaminated; full tests of the soil have not been conducted.
Community concerns include: