Judge orders BNSF to pay Washington tribe nearly $400 million for trespassing with oil trains

2025-01-12 16:29:02 source:lotradecoin trading rewards program category:Contact

SEATTLE (AP) — BNSF Railway must pay nearly $400 million to a Native American tribe in Washington state, a federal judge ordered Monday after finding that the company intentionally trespassed when it repeatedly ran 100-car trains carrying crude oil across the tribe’s reservation.

U.S. District Judge Robert Lasnik initially ruled last year that the the railway deliberately violated the terms of a 1991 easement with the Swinomish Tribe north of Seattle that allows trains to carry no more than 25 cars per day. The judge held a trial early this month to determine how much in profits BNSF made through trespassing and how much it should be required to disgorge.

The tribe sued in 2015 after BNSF dramatically increased, without the tribe’s consent, the number of cars it was running across the reservation so that it could ship crude oil from the Bakken Formation in and around North Dakota to a nearby facility. The route crosses sensitive marine ecosystems along the coast, over water that connects with the Salish Sea, where the tribe has treaty-protected rights to fish.

Bakken oil is easier to refine into the fuels sold at the gas pump and ignites more easily. After train cars carrying Bakken crude oil exploded in Alabama, North Dakota and Quebec, a federal agency warned in 2014 that the oil has a higher degree of volatility than other crudes in the U.S.

More:Contact

Recommend

Our 12 favorites moments of 2024

We check out a lot of things in a given year: Lots of movies, TV shows, and music. Today, we are hig

Nordstrom Rack's Clear the Rack Sale Is Here: Save up to 95% on Madewell, Kate Spade & More

We independently selected these products because we love them, and we think you might like them at t

What are the most common Powerball numbers? New study tracks results since 2015

A new study from a gambling site crunched the numbers on Powerball to determine the numbers that com