An internal email sent by Fort Bragg City Manager Tabatha Miller to city staff went public on Wednesday, December 1, 2021 revealing that there had been an oil spill on the Skunk Train’s tracks at the Fort Bragg Depot yard. The email said the Skunk Train staff denied access to Mendocino County Environmental Health personnel claiming its federal rail designation did not require them to comply with county officials.
This comes amongst rising tensions between the iconic Skunk Train and the City of Fort Bragg after Mendocino Railway leveraged its designation as a public utility to utilize eminent domain to take ownership of 270 acres of the former Georgia Pacific mill site in Fort Bragg. This acquisition has resulted in 20% of the city’s land being owned by the railway.
Bruce Broderick, a resident of Fort Bragg since 2004, said he discovered the oil spill on Thanksgiving Day, November 25. He told us that while walking through the Skunk Train Depot parking lot, he noticed “a large oil spill on the tracks.”
On Tuesday, November 30, Broderick returned to the site and took more pictures of the oil spill. The next day, Broderick felt compelled to contact Will Nalty, Mendocino County Environmental Health’s Hazardous Materials Operations Specialist about the discovery, providing him with a description of what he found and photographs.
Nalty confirmed Broderick reported the spill and he told us an Environmental Health Specialist from Fort Bragg was asked to “respond, observe and report.” The employee confirmed with Nalty there was a six feet by four feet spill “in the soil and pooling in the soil.” The Fort Bragg employee also told Nalty there were also “signs of spill trailing, possibly off the property.”
Skunk Train employees reportedly told the Environmental Health Specialist that “the engines have an oil overflow which discharged the oil.”
Nalty told us that when the Environmental Health employee “asked to look at another part of the property the request was denied.” The Skunk Train employees “exerted their claim that they are a federal entity and exempt from local and state regulations.”
Upon direction of Nallty, the employee directed Skunk Train employees “to start cleaning it up and that we would refer it to the federal agencies.” Later that day, Broderick reported to Nalty that the Skunk Train employees had commenced their clean-up of the oil spill.
Midday Wednesday, Broderick described going to the Farmer’s Market, cutting through the Skunk Train parking lot, and locating “an individual who was covering up the spill with sand and gravel.” This individual told Broderick he had “dug down and removed all of the oil from the site.”
Broderick photographed yesterday what appeared to be absorption mats that had been laid across the stretch of tracks where he had first encountered the oil spill. Broderick described encountering Assistant General Manager of the Skunk Train Toney Natareno who told him absorption mats had been laid down to “absorb anything that might be left.” Broderick told us he questioned Natareno as to how personnel were able to get under the railroad tie to get any oil that had soaked in and reportedly Natareno responded, “The oil didn’t go that deep. It was only the surface.” Natareno also told Broderic that diesel-electric locomotives from the time period of the one used for transporting tourists “are designed to throw off excess oil as heat and pressure develop.”
We reached out to Robert Pinoli, the President and CEO of Mendocino Railway, California Western Railroad, and the Skunk Train regarding these reports. He told us that he has been working Mendocino Railways for 30 years adding “I am also four generations to Mendocino County. I care deeply for this beautiful place.”
Pinoli told us these claims regarding the oil spill are “a continuation of the City’s effort to retaliate against Mendocino Railway.”
Pinoli said he was not informed of the oil spill until Wednesday, December 1, and had not seen any indications of an oil spill when he walked “the depot north crossing Pine Street and walking towards Main Street” on Monday, November 29. But, he told us that “employees have removed soil and placed it in sealed drum containers to be removed and disposed of by our outside contractor.”
Implying the oil might be a false flag employed by disgruntled citizens of Fort Bragg, Pinoli said, “[T]his puddle you have a picture of seems a bit suspect, no[?]” He went on to ask, “Do you find it odd that the person who allegedly saw this on the 25th didn’t come say something to the railroad?”
Fort Bragg City Manager Tabatha Miller, the author of the internal email that had gone public revealing this twist in the Skunk Train story, told us the post was “not intended as a public statement.” But, City Manager Miller did acknowledge that there is a “good argument” that any internal documents are subject to the public record.
Reflecting on the news of the oil spill, City Manager Miller said Mendocino Railways’ unwillingness to cooperate with Environmental Health proceedings was “consistent with the challenges we’ve had dealing with the claim of federal preemption” made by the railroad.
Will Nalty told us if any of the reported spills “ends up in a navigable waterway, the railroad will be in violation of the Clean Water Act and may also be a violation of the Oil Pollution Act of 1990. These are both federal laws.”
That’s an oil spill? I’ve seen worse from trucks around here.
Misleading headlines are always suspect. The article says access was denied to “another part of the property”.
A spill of only one gallon of oil can
contaminate a million gallons of
water. A single pint of oil released
into a lake or wetland can cover
one acre of surface water and
seriously damage aquatic habitat.
Storage tank spills can contaminate
drinking water supplies and take
years for ecosystems to recover.
All spills pose a threat to human
health and the environment, require
remediation which may extend
beyond property boundaries, and
result in substantial cleanup costs.
At low levels of contamination, fuel
contaminants in water cannot be
detected by smell or taste, yet the
seemingly pure water may be
contaminated to the point of
affecting human health.
More drama about nothing. Unpussify America.
Sounds like it wasn’t much of a spill,and they did what any agency would have required to clean it up. This might have been overblown, On the other hand, I wonder what was up with the other part of the property? Not a lot of cooperation there. The Skunk certainly tipped their hand and proved, once again that they feel themselves exempt from any local rules or oversight. What happens when something major happens? I wonder if they’ll keep the fire department out if there’s a fire on the property?
Great coverage, Matt. . . Thank you.
It’s very funny how the guy who has been organizing protests of 3-4 people against the Skunk Train’s operations, Bruce Broderick, just so happened to find the “spill” and that Will Nalty, [edited] is trusted to do any kind of independent reporting.
Bruce, I have edited your comment to remove the portion that accused Nalty of a crime without any proof. This goes against MendoFever’s comment policies. If you’re going to make accusations against anyone of criminal implications, evidence must be provided.
Sounds like the mayors drones are leading a smear Campaign at all costs I heard Mr. Norvell was a great wrestler back in his day maybe he can challenge Robert to wrestling match off ,rumor has it the mayors forte was the rear naked choke, go figure maybe there is a hope for”piece” after all.
This is Misinformation- and an unsubtantiated opinion.
Whoa, gettin’ ugly here. The facts are pretty simple. A spill was observed and reported to the County Environment Health Dept. The Skunk did not deny it was theirs and addressed it. Based on their explanation, a request was made to inspect another location on Skunk property. That request was denied on the basis of the Skunk’s long maintained claim of exemption from local, county and state rules. I suggest putting the personalities aside and consider the facts and their ramifications.
Wow Mr.Taylor on the spike and so right and a little bit of oil spill no problem less than a gallon quit alerting the agency it’s just something that is a non-issue, and look to the council to spill some illicit drugs all over their kitchen table make sure that they know that it might have fentanyl in it , Wrestling ???? with that for a bit ? Mr. IT
In the late 80s GP was caught covering up a small PCB spill from an electrical transformer and worked out an agreement with the city to notify the city asap about any hazardous material spills. California Western Railroad was owned by GP back then and was covered by this agreement. I guess they don’t feel bound by this hazmat response protocol anymore to cooperate with the city and have an immediate notification and response when things like this happen.
A railroad is an industrial facility and by it’s very nature will have industrial pollution. I believe they should still be bound by that agreement today so as to prevent the ‘bad neighbor’ perception that seems to follow them around. While negotiating easements and rightaways with Pacific Bell in an attempt to place a fiber optic cable along the tracks there was a meeting I attended also attended by Gary Millikan, ex City Manager and then President of the Skunk Train where he claimed that they were not a railroad but an amusement ride, not subject to federal emergency response guidelines. The status changes with the weather whenever it benefits them. They don’t deliver mail or groceries to dwellers on the tracks and can’t accomplish a complete route at this time. They might save their credibility if the repaired the tunnel and actually transported goods along the line. They don’t perform any of the services a real train performs and don’t seem to care about their relationship with their communities.
They are not even covered under the State of California Rail Plan. They are catagoricaly not covered by the FRA.
(2) the term “designated Federal entity” means Amtrak, the Appalachian Regional Commission, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection, the Board for International Broadcasting, the Committee for Purchase From People Who Are Blind or Severely Disabled, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Denali Commission, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Farm Credit Administration, the Federal Election Commission, the Election Assistance Commission, the Federal Housing Finance Board, the Federal Labor Relations Authority, the Federal Maritime Commission, the Federal Trade Commission, the Legal Services Corporation, the National Archives and Records Administration, the National Credit Union Administration, the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, the National Labor Relations Board, the National Science Foundation, the Panama Canal Commission, the Peace Corps, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Smithsonian Institution, the United States International Development Finance Corporation, the United States International Trade Commission, the Postal Regulatory Commission, and the United States Postal Service;
The “Skunk Train is not in the list above. They are gving you BS. They can actually be held liable under misinformation laws.
Fort Bragg – and Mendocino County – need the Skunk Train.
The Skunk Train does not need Fort Bragg’s or Mendocino County’s self-righteous and usually dishonest leftists.
The Skunk Train/Mendocino Railway a subsidiary of Sierra Energy Inc. grand plans for development as outlined in the “ Little Stinker” newsletter publication (that was sent out to area residents and distributed to tourists taking the Skunk Train rail bike and train excursions ) runs roughshod over Fort Bragg’s Coastal General Plan and aspirations of the local community to keep this site as open space for recreation and wildlife habitat restoration. These plans also will immensely change the character of this town.
Promises have been made over and over- the City Council meetings where Skunk and minions make all these grand promises are archived. Meanwhile Tunnels collapse. The trains catch fire ( twice as far as we know) and
the Skunk train operation is a rust bucket- just walk around the property behind the gift shop. The ole 45 is in the “roundhouse” that look like a near shambles of an abandoned building.This rust is reality. Comments posted here that demean folks pointing out facts as leftists is just nothing but plain nonsense. The dirty diesel that emanates from these motorcar trains is a far cry from the Steam engine that the Skunk put forth in all its advertising. Truth in advertising?
This is just a land grab for outside developers to reap the benefits and not about the Skunk Train at all!
Faaaakkkeeee Neeeeewwwssss
So the city loses the land battle after multiple decades and suddenly there are now oil spills and toxic waste discovered and remediation. Pretty clear what is going on here….sour grapes and retaliation.
The workers within the skunk train (i.e. maintenance and operations) are not qualified for their positions most times, and have little to no credentials/experience with CEQA or NEPA. The operations are done by people who are as sloppy as the small spill that was left for days. If you sit in the parking lot long enough, you’ll see the rats running around. The entity is not public although they claim public domain, and charge increasing fees to save up for the condos and business units they will try and build along the shore. The skunk Train does not have the environment in their interest because they do not hire qualified individuals nor care to benefit its surrounding community. the CEO doesn’t even live in the town and operates multiple properties.