Comment EI-19178
Received or sent (printed as 1/3/2013)
The TRR EIS needs to consider the permanent degradation of habitat all along its route and the coal shipping routes it makes likely across Montana. Habitat is not resilient to its original diversity: it must be restored once messed up, and the TRR has no provision for that. Bringing belching thundering trains, diesel drippings, coal dust, and drainage problems to a gentle valley is ecologically indefensible... only for $ is it defensible. Present and past uses of the Tongue River valley are perhaps highest, best use," in the sense that the landscape can barely support current development. Even with current development, the valley has problems with invasive plants, noise pollution from aircraft, degradation from road construction and recreational use.... only the profit motive explains why we could permit further degradation. Thank you. Please also consider: Public convenience and necessity: This proposed railroad is not for the “public convenience and necessity” which is what is required in order for a body to get the power of eminent domain and condemnation authority. This railroad would serve only one coal company giant, Arch Coal, which intends to sell the coal to China and other Asian countries. Impacts on property values: The project would devalue property and infringes on property rights. This railroad will cause fires, spread weeds, make ranching and farming more difficult and expensive, split ranch land in half and separate fields from the river and shift the liability of train crossings to the landowner. Wildlife: The Tongue River Valley is rich in wildlife habitat and home to outstanding elk and mule deer populations as well as upland birds. Industrializing this valley with a railroad and the coal strip mine it serves will seriously degrade this excellent sportsman resource. Flooding: The railroad bed will act as an earthen dam and potentially worsen the flooding problems now experienced in Miles City in the winter with ice jams. Noise: Noise from earthshaking trains will ruin the habitat for each species of the valley, even for humans seeking quiet enjoyment of nearby recreation areas near Miles City. Infrastructure and traffic: Taxes will go up for residents communities along the rail lines as the coal heads to coastal ports for shipment. This railroad will increase coal train traffic substantially through cities such as Billings and Helena, causing traffic delays, noise, and diesel pollution. Expensive over passes and safety crossing would need to be paid for primarily by local taxpayers. The Tongue River Railroad will allow coal that should stay in the ground to be burned in dirty Chinese plants and will fuel intolerable, decades-long increases in carbon dioxide emissions. The greenhouse gas costs of Otter Creek coal go far beyond just burning the coal. It must be mined, hauled by trains fueled by diesel to West Coast terminals, shipped overseas by ships fueled by diesel, and then hauled in China to the plants."
Submitted by: Jon Kohn
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.
Permanent address docketyard.org/d/FD-30186/comment/EI-19178 · back to the docket sheet