Comment EI-19657
Received or sent (printed as 1/9/2013)
Dear Mr. Blodgett, Having been born and brought up in Miles City, Montana, and as a lifelong resident of Montana and multi-decade member of Northern Plains Resource Council, my message to you is that it is VITAL that the environmental impact statement for the proposed Tongue River Railroad analyzes the following: *Public convenience and necessity: The proposed Tongue River 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 entity, Arch Coal Company, which intends to sell the coal to China and other Asian countries. *Impacts on property values: The project would devalue property and infringe on property rights. This railroad would cause fires, spread weeds, devalue property (especially riverfront property), would make ranching and farming more difficult and expensive, would split ranch land into pieces and separate fields from the river, and would 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 would serve would seriously degrade this excellent sportsman resource. *Flooding: This railroad would act as an earthen dam and potentially worsen the flooding problems now experienced in Miles City (at the confluence of the Tongue and Yellowstone Rivers)in the winter with ice jams. *Noise: The loud trains would ruin the quiet enjoyment of nearby recreation areas near Miles City. Infrastructure and traffic: Taxes would go up for resident communities along the rail lines carrying coal to coastal ports for shipment. This railroad would increase coal train traffic, substantially causing traffic delays, noise, and diesel pollution. The only way to cope with this increased traffic would require expensive overpasses and safety crossings which would have to be paid for primarily by local taxpayers. The Tongue River Railroad would allow coal that should stay in the ground to be burned in dirty Chinese plants and would 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 diesel-fueled ships, and then, once in China, hauled to the plants. This entire environmental travesty is to be avoided for the sake of the greatest global good. PLEASE ENSURE THE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENT INCLUDES THESE VITAL ISSUES. Thank you for your consideration. Regards, Marie A. Root"
Submitted by: Marie Root
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-19657 · back to the docket sheet