Comment EI-19712
Received or sent (printed as 1/9/2013)
As a Pacific Northwest resident and frequent visitor to Tongue River Valley,Yellowstone, and other beautiful areas in the West I'm very concerned about the impact on public health and the environment from proposals to transport coal from Montana and Wyoming to the Pacific Northwest for export to Asia. Proposal to build a coal-hauling railroad line through Tongue River Valley seems misguided because of negative impacts on citizens, their quality of life and adverse impact on the environment of the Tongue River Valley and on those of us who live in the Pacific Northwest. Because it's part of a larger project to export coal to Asia through Northwest ports, the proposed Tongue River Valley Railroad ine would have far reaching impacts on millions of people and a responsible EIS would take them into account. Some of my concerns are the impact the proposal on property values, fires caused from spills and derailments, the spread of weeds, the splitting of ranch lands, degradation of wildlife habitat and reduced hunting, and noise everywhere along the line. More trains cause traffic delays and affect public safety. Infrastructure will need to be upgraded and those tax burdens will fall on taxpayers. Railroads pay 2% of those costs generally. Lastly, this proposal fuels global warming which affects us all. Thank you for consideration of my comments.
Submitted by: G. DiLabio · Mount Vernon, 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-19712 · back to the docket sheet