Ballard residents take action, work with BNSF for massive cleanup

Ballard residents who were fed up with trash, furniture and syringes dumped below the 57th Street Bridge and along the bushes lining the Burke Gilman Trail will see a massive cleanup in three weeks.

Doug Henderson said he and other neighbors spent months tracking the problems, taking photos, and calling BNSF Railway to alert officials of their concerns.

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“BNSF is very open and receptive and they take action pretty quickly,” Henderson said. “A lot of people going to the Internet will share with others what they think but the same amount of time could be spent just calling the appropriate agency and getting action.”

Henderson said they believe some people are camping below the bridge at night as well. He pointed out how busy the bridge is; it connects the neighborhood with the Burke-Gilman Trail and gives it access to the waterfront.

Just north, right along the Burke-Gilman Trail, is another problem spots on BNSF Railway land.

Neighbor Angie Gerrald pointed out a tipped-over barbecue, tarps, and a bike tire that were visible from the trail on Wednesday afternoon.

Over the past nine months, Gerrald said she’s noticed a significant uptick of trash and suspicious activity along the trail.

“Some of it looked like active campsite, others looked like just a processing ground,” she said. “Cut up credit cards, boxes and things left up there. … [It was] really hard to tell what activities were going on but none of it looked like civil, legal activities.”

Gerrald shared her concern about people running along the trail in the evening, especially those wearing headphones.

She said she, Henderson, and others decided they need to get more educated about who owned the property, which led them to BNSF.

Gus Melonas, BNSF spokesperson, said the railway views the cleanup as an important safety issue.

“Our railroad, No. 1, it’s safety, employee safety, but also safety of the people who are unfortunate,” he said. “In the last year and a half, there have been over 30 people killed by trains just in Washington state and the bulk of that, 90 percent, is on this corridor here, Bellingham to Vancouver, Washington.”

Melonas said the cleanup along the tracks will likely cost the railway upward of $15,000 and last 3-4 hours. He said it will be scheduled around Amtrak and Sounder trains, though it will likely delay about 10 freight trains.

“We’ll bring in a crane off of a rail car, shutting down both lines, and it’ll reach over, grab the debris, and then put it into a rail car,” he explained.

Melonas said he expects the cleanup to occur in about three weeks, though an exact time and date has not yet been set.

Henderson said he would like a fence around the tracks as well, though Melonas cautioned that it’s been tried in the past and within hours, people have cut through it.