Comment EI-19432
Received or sent (printed as 1/6/2013)
I am deeply concerned about the potential impact on public health and the environment from the various proposals to transport coal from Montana and Wyoming to terminals on the Pacific Coast for export to Asia. The proposal to build a coal-hauling railroad line through the Tongue River Valley seems especially misguided for two main reasons: 1) it would have negative impacts on the residents, the quality of life, and the environment in the Tongue River Valley; and 2) it would contribute to similar negative impacts for the residents, the quality of life, and the environment in the Pacific Northwest in general. Regarding the Tongue River Valley rail proposal my concerns are as follows: 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, devalue property (especially riverfront property), will make ranching and farming more difficult and expensive, will 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 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: The loud trains will ruin the 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 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. Because it is part of a larger project to export coal from the US to Asia through ports on the Pacific coast, the proposed Tongue River Valley railroad would have much more extensive impacts. I believe that a responsible EIS will take these impacts into account. After spending many years in the classroom, around machinery, problem solving, I have learned the necessity and importance of being able to control one’s sound environment. It has an enormous, important relationship with mental health and overall well-being for all living creatures. (There is research on the effect of noise on milk production in cows.) It seems too that there is a special relationship with getting older and the stress of noise. I personally suffer a great deal from blowing whistles and screeching brakes and wheels. I ask that you measure and quantify the noise increase that will certainly happen if you add 18 trains a day through our neighborhoods and towns. Train noise is a foreseeable, adverse, and significant impact facing everybody along the entire train route. As things stand now, in summer you have to accept wrenching noise in trade off for fresh air. The train runs through our bedroom every night, and the noise is guaranteed. It interrupts sleep, causing chronic sleep deficit. Train whistles blow inconsistently but regularly with each train that passes. If GPT gets permitted, my family shall probably leave because South Hill will continuously reverberate with screeching brakes and tooting horns. After awhile you cannot think, or enjoy a normal conversation, and you find the outdoor existence you so much treasured will no longer be pleasant or restoring. Noise is a killer and it will affect many in the community. Research torture methods, and constant noise will be found in the list. Screeching brakes are a very special kind of torture. They hit randomly. At times the unexpected screech pitch is piercing. I know from my husband that he has several days of tinnitus after an unexpected encounter with train screech. He carries earplugs with him, but usually the noise hits before he can make successful use of earplugs. With repeated occurrences, one’s hearing is decimated, one screech at a time. You know why many train engineers have suffered hearing impairment… not hard to figure out. Now imagine one train an hour going through your neighborhood, town, farm, and community. Many of us will leave. Who wants to live like this? Many who cannot leave will suffer disorders from sleep problems and constant interruption. You must measure noise, and quantify the costs: mental disorder, impaired hearing, people moving out, overall damage caused by noise. Add to these will be the doctor visits and general stress. Businesses will fail, and some companies will move away. (Visit the Lighthouse Mission area in downtown Bellingham and experience the noise up close.) Please – research the impact of train noise all along the proposed train route. Thank you.
Submitted by: Lynne Oulman · Bellingham, Washington
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-19432 · back to the docket sheet