Comment EI-19352
Received or sent (printed as 1/5/2013)
The environmental impact statement for the proposed Tongue River Railroad must analyze: Public convenience and necessity: This proposed railroad is not for the “public convenience and necessity” which is what is required for power of eminent domain and condemnation authority. This railroad would serve 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, devalue property, make ranching and farming more difficult and expensive, split ranch land in half and separate fields from the river and will shift the liability of train crossings to the landowner. Wildlife: The Tongue River Valley is rich in wildlife habitat and wildlife. Industrializing this valley with a railroad and the coal strip mine will seriously degrade that habitat. 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: The trains will ruin the quiet 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 causing traffic delays, noise, and diesel pollution. The only way to live with this increased traffic will require expensive over passes and safety crossing which are 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: Jennifer Nitz · Missoula, Montana
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-19352 · back to the docket sheet