Railroad To Pay $102M For Calif. Wildfire

Union Pacific Agrees To Settlement For Causing Wildfire In 2000

(AP)  Union Pacific Railroad Co. has agreed to a $102 million settlement to pay for damages from a massive California wildfire in what federal officials described Tuesday as a precedent-setting case.

U.S. Attorney McGregor Scott said the settlement marks the U.S. Forest Service's largest ever damage recovery for a wildfire.

The Omaha, Neb.-based company agreed to settle after a federal judge in Sacramento ruled against it in February, Union Pacific spokeswoman Zoe Richmond said.

What prompted the settlement was not just the judge's decision, but what it included.

U.S. District Judge Frank C. Damrell Jr. said the federal government could seek damages far beyond the previous legal benchmarks - lost market value of burned trees and the cost of fighting the fire.

He ruled that a jury also could consider the loss of public recreation, scenery and wildlife, as well as wilderness areas with old-growth trees that never would have been logged for sale.

That would allow the government to seek significantly higher damages. In this case, the government estimated that could be as high as $190 million, a figure the railroad was disputing, according to court records.

"A precedent has been set here ... that will let us assess the true, inherent value of forest land," U.S. Associate Attorney General Kevin O'Connor said during a news conference in Sacramento.

He said the case would serve as a national model for the U.S. Forest Service and Justice Department.

Federal officials also announced that U.S. attorneys in Sacramento, Los Angeles and Utah have dedicated teams to recover damages from people and entities deemed to have started costly wildland blazes.

"It's sending a message that their negligence in setting a fire has consequences," O'Connor said.

An estimated $600 million in such damages could be recovered nationwide from fires set on Forest Service land, said Mark Rey, undersecretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the head of the Forest Service.

The Union Pacific settlement is the result of a lawsuit filed after the Storrie Fire, which started in August 2000 in Plumas County, about 100 miles northeast of Sacramento. The fire burned more than 52,000 acres in the Plumas and Lassen national forests before it was contained three weeks later at a cost of $22 million.

It later was determined that sparks from welders repairing tracks set it off.

Richmond, the company spokesman, said railroad employees thought they had extinguished the sparks that were burning alongside the tracks. Union Pacific said it was likely that a passing train blew them back to life.

The employees gave conflicting accounts of their attempts to put out the fire. Richmond blamed the conflicts on the time lag between the fire and when employees were questioned under oath after the government sued in 2006.

"We feel our employees handled the situation as best they could. It was a rare and unfortunate set of circumstances that this fire became bigger than it should have," Richmond said. "We are very fortunate that we didn't have any injuries or any major damage (to homes). It could have been a lot worse."

The judge said the government could seek more than $13 million for "damage to wildlife habitat and public enjoyment of the forest," as much as $33 million to plant trees and $122 million in lost timber.

"The forests' use for recreation and scenic enjoyment was also sorely impacted," Damrell wrote, summarizing the government's claim. "Much of the devastated areas involved old growth forests, designated wilderness and trees that were hundreds of years old. The damage to the soil, according to plaintiff, may take hundreds of years to rebuild, if ever."

Scott, the U.S. attorney in Sacramento, said there are two dozen other such cases pending in the Eastern District. The next is against an individual who started a fire on his property.

The Eastern District stretches from Bakersfield to Oregon and includes the Sierra Nevada and Cascade Range. It contains 16 million acres of national forest land, a little more than 8 percent of the nation's total.

[newtagagain]

"Much of the devastated areas involved old growth forests, designated wilderness and trees that were hundreds of years old. The damage to the soil, according to plaintiff, may take hundreds of years to rebuild, if ever."

I thought old-grwth trees survived and benefitted from forest fires and the soil also benefitted as fires spur new growth - now this.???

[forthepeopl1]

this say''''''''s it all. it''''''''s all about the wall street investors and mainly china,japan investor. the one''''''''s mr potatohead paulson sold them in his many years.

his head is on the chopping block and he is useing the americans tax payers to bail him out.
July 22 (Bloomberg) -- Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, trying to persuade Congress to approve his rescue plan for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, said U.S. financial market stability is at stake and international investors are awaiting the outcome.

``This is about not only our housing markets, but it''''''''s about our capital markets more broadly,'''''''''''''''' Paulson said in an interview with Bloomberg Television today. ``This goes well beyond the two institutions -- Fannie and Freddie -- it has to do with investors in the United States and investors all over the world.''''''''''''''''

yep, we the people get f by whitehouse and congress again..thanks to americans not telling congress to get f on this idear. everyone should hold town by town rally,city by city rally,state by state rallys or completely stop working stop buying,stop them in their tracks.

come on america what will it take for you to stand up for your kids and grandkids futures..

[e-mail]



americans need to tell congress that the same investors that are putting americans on the streets, need to be told that it goes both ways, and americans are not going to bailout the same investors that started this whole thing in the first place