Minerva

A company that plans to store hundreds of obsolete rail oil tankers in the Adirondack High Peaks is already storing some decaying passenger cars on its tracks there.

Peter Bauer, executive director of the environmental group Protect the Adirondacks, said Friday that he was walking along a remote section of the Saratoga and North Creek Railroad in Essex County this week when he came across several dilapidated passenger cars that appeared to have been stored there for years.

"These cars are in disrepair and are falling apart. They had been vandalized and trash was evident," said Bauer. "Most disturbing was the corroding paint on an old car where a large amount of paint chips had fallen from the car and were soaking into the track and ties."

Bauer said the "poor storage of these cars does not give us much confidence in Iowa Pacific's claims that there will be no negative environmental impacts from long-term storage of used oil tanker cars." Critics of the proposal worry that the tankers could leak,

Chicago-based Iowa Pacific Holdings is the parent company of Saratoga and North Creek. In July, Iowa Pacific President Ed Ellis told a panel of Warren County lawmakers that the company is planning to store obsolete oil tankers on a section of line in Minerva and Newcomb known as the Sanford Lake Railway.

Ellis also told lawmakers that the company believes it can store the tankers without seeking approval from state regulators. Ellis and company financial officer Howard Clark did not return calls for comment. It could not be immediately determined Friday if the state had given its approval for the current storage of rail cars.

Asked about Bauer's account, Department of Environmental Conservation spokesman Kevin Frazier said, "Storing tank cars on tracks in the Forest Preserve is concerning and presents unique issues. DEC is evaluating the potential legal and environmental implications of the proposal."

Bauer said the storage plan should be regulated under the Adirondack Park Act and Environmental Conservation law.

"Our initial research raises many questions about the regulatory status of a railroad once it is no longer used for transport, but used for long-term storage of rail cars, whether on a main track or siding. Such a transition appears to constitute a new commercial activity that should be subject to local control," Bauer said.

Attempts to obtain comment from the Adirondack Park Agency late Friday were unsuccessful. The APA has also indicated it is studying whether it has jurisdiction over the oil tanker storage.

In his July presentation to Warren County, Ellis said the company could earn in the "seven figures" by storing tankers that don't meet current Canadian and proposed new U.S. safety standards and would await either retrofitting or scrapping. These new and proposed regulations could shelve much of an 80,000-car tanker fleet and require that tankers be stored for years, Ellis also told lawmakers.

Ellis has not revealed where the rail cars would come from or what companies might own them. Parts of the 30-mile Saratoga and North Creek line also run through Warren County, which leases tracks there to the company.

Bauer said the site of the decaying passenger cars "is a very out of the way spot, a couple of miles from the nearest road."

The line, which runs from Saratoga Springs to near Tahawus in the High Peaks, is owned by Warren County in Warren and Saratoga counties, and has been leased by the railroad since 2010.

The tracks in Essex County, where Ellis said hundreds of rail tanker cars could be stored, are owned by the railroad. The Sanford Lake section runs along the Hudson and Boreas rivers.

bnearing@timesunion.com • 518-454-5094 • @Bnearing10