Comment EI-19014
Received or sent (printed as 11/8/2012)
Approval of the Tongue River railroad will have a major impact on our way of life, the health of our communities, and our economy. We don’t want more dirty coal trains clogging up our rail lines, disrupting our communities, and displacing the hauling of Montana’s agricultural commodities. The environmental analysis should include a full-blown environmental impact statement that comprehensively considers the environmental and economic impacts this line will have on climate change, agricultural operations, communities, and rail transport. It is imperative that you consider the climate change impacts of digging, hauling, and burning 1.3 billion tons of coal. The analysis must consider the possibility that a new rail line could lead to the digging, hauling and burning of other coal resources in the area, contributing even more than the projected 2.6 billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions that will result from the development of the Otter Creek tracts alone. Arguments against Coal Export Terminal at Cherry Point and Railway's Custer Spur Rail Expansion If Peabody Coal and SSA Marine (49% owned by Goldman Sachs) put North America’s largest coal export terminal at Cherry Point, they will get huge profits, China will get cheap coal, and people living in communities surrounding the Gateway Pacific terminal,GPT, will get pollution in their air, land and water. The GPT threatens our health, clean air, and water. If the GPT is built, each year over 48 million tons of coal would be brought on trains to Cherry Point, dumped on 80 feet tall open storage piles, loaded onto ships and sent to China. According to the rail operator, BNSF, every single coal car can lose as much as 500 pounds of coal dust en route. A 2001 Canadian study of coal dust emissions at the Westshore Terminal near Tsawassen B.C., estimated that the Westshore Terminal emits roughly 1.5 million lbs. of coal dust a year. The proposed Cherry Point Terminal would be more than twice the size of Westshore with potentially twice the coal dust problem. Coal dust escaping from trains and terminal storage piles and diesel exhaust from train engines and cargo ships threaten our health because they contain toxic substances such as lead, mercury, arsenic, benzene, and formaldehyde. These can cause serious health problems including cancer, asthma, heart attacks, lung and breathing problems, birth defects and infant deaths. 180 Whatcom County doctors say there is no safe level of exposure to these substances. The prevailing winds at Cherry Point do not blow out to sea. The prevailing winds at Cherry Point blow toward the surrounding communities. Every year the wind would carry millions of pounds of toxic coal dust onto the neighborhoods, homes, farms, cars, patio furniture, and vegetable gardens of people living in Whatcom County. Terminal cities across North America are experiencing problems with coal dust coating their communities: Even though the prevailing winds blow out to sea at the Westshore coal terminal and even though it is only half as big as the proposed GPT, residents in Point Roberts, WA report coal dust blackens their homes, vehicles, patio furniture and boats. The Point Roberts marina manager reports the coal dust is a “constant problem” blackening boats and has resulted in lost business. The Ridley coal terminal, near Port Edward, B.C., ships only 9 tons of coal a year but photos show huge coal-dust clouds rising from the storage piles and residents report black coal dust coats their property. In response to homeowner complaints, the Ridley terminal now sends out a contractor “free of charge” to power wash the coal dust off residents’ homes. Residents in Seward Alaska have sued the coal terminal because coal dust blowing off the coal storage piles coats and damages their fishing boats, their neighborhoods and their scenic harbor. The state of Alaska has already given a $220,000 fine to the railroad that brings coal to the Seward terminal for failing to control coal dust coming off the trains. In Newport News, Virginia, despite the “advanced” water sprinkling systems and coal conveyer belts used at the Dominion 1.7 million ton coal shipping terminal, residents say coal dust coats their homes and, if they open the windows, coal dust coats the inside too. In the community near the coal terminal, the asthma rate is twice that for the rest of Virginia. The GPT threatens the beauty and natural resources upon which our communities are built. The GPT threatens the Cherry Point Aquatic Reserve, Birch Bay beaches, Whatcom County’s recreational fishing, commercial fishing, and tourism industry. Flooding tides flow from Cherry Point, through the aquatic reserve toward Point Whitehorn and then into and around Birch Bay. The flooding tides carrying coal dust and cargo ship ballast water would damage eel grass, herring, salmon, crabs, clams and other wildlife. If the GPT is built, the daily high tides would deposit black coal dust on Birch Bay beaches. When people buy a home or locate their business they look for safe, healthy neighborhoods with good schools, clean environments, and thriving communities. People do not want to move into dirty neighborhoods with noise, pollution, traffic and major industry that negatively impact the single largest investment they are ever likely to make. As proposed the Gateway Pacific Terminal at Cherry Point would create the largest coal export facility in North America. Each year 450 ships would travel through the straits enroute to Asia. A third of the ships would be Capesize vessels which are: An ocean-going cargo vessel that is physically too large to fit through the locks of either the Panama or Suez Canals and therefore must voyage via Cape Horn at the southernmost tip of South America to get to or from the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, or the Cape of Good Hope at the southernmost tip of South Africa to get to and from the Indian and Atlantic Oceans. Capesize vessels generally serve deep-water terminals handling raw materials, such as iron ore and coal. The rest of the vessels would be Panamax: ocean-going cargo vessels of the maximum size possible to pass through the locks of the Panama Canal, which are 1000 ft. long by 110 ft. wide and 85ft deep. These vessels are typically of 50,000 to 80,000 dwt, 965ft (290m) in length; 106ft. (32.3m) beam; and 39.5ft (12.04m) draft. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has determined the Gateway Pacific Terminal (GPT) and Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) Railway's Custer Spur Rail Expansion projects are interrelated and may have significant individual and/or cumulative impacts on the human environment. An Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) will be prepared in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969 and the Washington State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA). Preparation of the EIS will support the Corps' eventual decision to either issue, issue with modification or deny DA permits for the proposed actions. The EIS will assess the potential social, economic, and environmental impacts of the projects and is intended to be sufficient in scope to address Federal, State, and local requirements, environmental and socio-economic issues concerning the proposed action, and permit reviews. Sierra Club Scrapbook September 28, 2012 Oregon Gives the Stop Signal to Big Coal That was the message the Portland City Council, the Metro, and the city of The Dalles sent Big Coal last week after they all approved resolutions opposing coal exports through the Pacific Northwest without a full area-wide environmental review conducted by the Army Corps of Engineers. Portland's council vote was just the latest example in a string of cities and municipalities demanding environmental reviews and putting the interests of communities and public health before Big Coal profits. Tens of thousands of residents, 400 business leaders, 570 healthcare professionals, 200 faith leaders, and more than 160 public officials, including Oregon Governor Kitzhaber, have written letters, submitted comments, and rallied for a full review. There are so many better sources of energy available," says Howard Shapiro, Beyond Coal campaign volunteer in Portland, who lives less than a mile from the train tracks that coal trains would use. The idea that we're working hard to get off coal and then some guys come here who want to send coal through the Columbia River Gorge in open trains is crazy. Environmentally it's a disaster. And I'm particularly concerned by coal train derailments and that these trains would use the same tracks as passenger trains." Big Coal wants to connect its coal mining operations in Wyoming with Asian markets by building export terminals at such places as Coos Bay, Oregon, and Longview, Port Westward, and Cherry Point, Washington. Peabody in particular wants to export 48 million tons through Cherry Point each year. Coal companies want to send 32 coal trains a day through Portland, reports The Oregonian. It's not just environmentalists who want to stop Big Coal in its tracks. The medical and public health communities, small business owners, educators, and all sorts of political figures and municipalities have opposed the idea. “Will you please study the impact of the thousands of coal trains going from their points of origin through the regions of Bellingham and Blaine and the other areas that the rail lines pass through in this area to the storage and shipping facility planned at Cherry Point. My family and I are living in dread of the proposed coal terminal construction and transfer of freight trains of coal to the site for storage before shipping. The only benefit I see from this egregious act is the profit that the sponsoring and underwriting massive corporations will make. At the expense of the health of all the people residing along the rail lines or within air current reach of the lines, residing near the terminal with its mounds of coal piled high in the air blowing dust in over the adjacent land, if this project goes forward undeterred by environmental and common sense studies, I foresee a disaster of immeasurable consequences. Other regions in Canada that had similar projects have had enormous regrets. Impacts are wide ranging: Health of individuals as coal dust gets into the lungs with each breath; vulnerable are the already ill, babies, children, those with asthma or other COPD, and the rest of the population Wildlife affected similarly Vegetation affected Sea life affected Property values decline even further than has already occurred in this current recession Interminable trains going by loaded with coal spewing the dust into the air Lines of cars at the railway crossings burning gasoline with fumes rising into the air as they wait for the innumerable box cars to roll by. The stored coal and vessels shipping the coal will kill off the Orca whales. The beautiful forests will suffer; the trees will be exposed to the noxious fumes. Trees were not meant to live in a coal laden atmosphere. Coal is a dirty fuel. It will be shipped away to countries that will burn it and use it and the environmental impact of it then becomes more pronounced worldwide. The promised jobs for the region will not materialize. People will be brought in from elsewhere to work at low wages. This project must be stopped The whole reason for this is in a word PROFIT to those who are already rolling in billions of PROFIT. Thank you for reading this. My only hope is that the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers will find this project a scheming, shameful, immoral, reprehensible, despicable, and environmentally dangerous one and veto it. Arona K Henderson retired MD"
Submitted by: Arona K Henderson MD
The Board publishes this comment in its environmental-comment table for this proceeding. It is quoted here as printed; nothing is inferred from it, and it states the commenter's own position in their own words, not this record's.
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