Comment EI-19818
Received or sent (printed as 1/10/2013)
Docket No. FD 30186 Attention: Mr. Ken Blodgett Dear Mr. Blodgett: The environmental impact statement for the proposed Tongue River Railroad should analyze the following: • Public convenience and necessity: This proposed railroad is not for the “public convenience and necessity,” and the Tongue River Railroad Company should not get the power of eminent domain and condemnation for a railroad that does not serve the public interest. This railroad would serve only one huge coal company, Arch Coal, and its customers in China and other Asian countries. None of the coal would benefit U.S. utility customers or the U.S. public interest. • Impacts on property values: The project would devalue property and infringe on property rights. The proposed railroad would cause fires, spread weeds, devalue property (especially riverfront property), make ranching and farming more difficult and expensive, split ranch land in half and separate fields from the river, and could shift the liability for accidents and livestock losses at train crossings to landowners. • Health Impacts: There is no question and no denying that significant amounts of airborne pollutants will result if the project is approved. So the question is what will be the effect of these increased pollutants on human health and quality of life, fish and wildlife, water and air quality, among others. How will these effects—additively and cumulatively—compare with the standards that State and Federal government agencies regulate? More specifically, coal dust is associated with the following health effects; and, therefore attention to each of these should be included in the study: • Early death (can shorten life 1–3 years) • Risk of death from cardiovascular disease • Risk of dying from lung cancer • Incidence of hospitalization for asthma in children • Growth of lung function in children • Increase mortality in infants and young children Toxic chemicals are often used to control dust. They must be studied in conjunction with all the particulate matter (i.e.: coal dust; diesel particulate) and in relation to the health effects mentioned above. • 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 outdoor resource. • Flooding: The railroad bed would act as an earthen dam and could worsen the flooding problems that can occur in the area in winter with ice jams. • Noise: The loud trains would ruin the quiet enjoyment of nearby recreation areas. • Emergency preparedness & Response: What are the Emergency preparedness and hazardous materials response needs along the proposed route? Are local and state first responders trained, prepared and fully equipped to handle an emergency that could result? Where will costs be incurred? Who will take responsibility for training and liability of accidents? • Infrastructure and traffic: Taxes will go up for residents of 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 would require expensive overpasses and safety crossing, which are paid for primarily by local taxpayers. • The Surface Transportation Board should determine what safety and railroad traffic improvements would be needed if 40 million tons or more of coal are shipped from the proposed Otter Creek mine, along the proposed railroad, and through Montana and on to west coast ports -- and how much, if any of these costs would and should be borne by taxpayers, and how much by the railroad and its overseas customers. • The Tongue River Railroad would 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. Sincerely, C. Fuji Kreider 60366 Marvin Road La Grande, Oregon 97850
Submitted by: C. Fuji Kreider · Oregon Rural Action · La Grande, Oregon
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-19818 · back to the docket sheet