Residents looking for help with debris cleanup
Railway: Mess will break down on its own
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| Roy Sykes photo -- Ray Trautman, owner of Riverside Harbor in northern St. Charles County, looks on as a loader moves mountains of flood debris from his business. |
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Trautman, 65, owns Riverside Harbor, located on Kampville Drive in northern St. Charles County. The Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway runs atop a berm along the property's southern border. Thanks to the flooded Mississippi, the berm is now covered with trash.
"It is going to cause me a lot of problems - stench and varmints," Trautman said.St. Charles County government will clean at least part of the mess, but might leave nonhazardous debris in place.
Trautman's wife, Cathy Trautman, 62, called the railroad and requested they clean the mess. BNSF owns a 25-foot right of way between the tracks and the harbor's property fence, the Trautmans said. When the nearby Elm Point levee broke last month, the floodwater deposited the debris onto both the railroad and the harbor properties.
A BNSF spokesman said Thursday that floodwaters overtook hundreds of miles of the company's track and right of way in the Midwest, and it would be impossible for BNSF to clean up that much debris.
"It's an impossible task," said spokesman Steve Forsberg from his Kansas City office. "It seems like a simple enough request until you realize what a massive scale we're working with."
He said most of the debris is natural and will break down on its own. The railway does not plan to clean up any natural debris, he said.
The Mississippi left corn stalks, logs, boards, barrels, a go-cart, metal door, sofa, dog house, tires and plastic bottles along a 2-acre stretch.
"We're 3 feet deep in corn stalks. That's a lot of corn stalks," Ray Trautman said.
As the wet debris breaks down, it will start to smell and attract rats, snakes and mosquitoes, he said. If he does not clear it away from his fence, it will cause water drainage problems, he said.
The Trautmans have spent $5,500 cleaning their property, and will spend more before they are finished. The trash containers alone cost $375 per day, plus $100 per hour for the skid loader driver.
It could cost that much more to clean the railroad's property, Ray Trautman said.
"It's their right of way, but I don't want to be stuck looking at debris," Ray Trautman said.
Forsberg said the railway, which operates 32,000 miles of track in 28 U.S. states, had several routes out of service in the Midwest during the flooding. The railway is still working on getting at least one route up and running again.
"Just like homeowners and communities that were flooded, in five different states we suffered significant damage as well," he said.
Trautman said his flood insurance will pay to clean his three buildings, but not his grounds. He does not want to seek government aid.
"Some people think the government just comes in and hands you money, but you pay for everything," he said.
Trautman said he is still paying off $40,000 owed on two Small Business Administration loans from the Great Flood of 1993.
Ray Trautman said he has generated little income this season. Riverside Harbor has been closed six weeks. Even before the flood, business was down because of high water levels. As of Wednesday, the harbor was scheduled to remain closed at least through the end of the week while the Trautmans continued cleaning.
Cathy Trautman said she called state government officials and various agencies, but received no help.
St. Charles County spokesman John Sonderegger on Wednesday said the county normally does not clean up private property. But in this case, because the debris includes propane tanks and things that could pose an environmental hazard, the Division of Environmental Services will perform a cleanup.
Sonderegger said he did not know whether the county would remove nonhazardous debris, such as corn stalks.
