Comment EI-19933
Received or sent (printed as 1/11/2013)
Construction of the Tongue River Railroad is solely to link it with the existing rail lines delivering powder river coal to British Columbia ports and eventually to ports currently under consideration in Wash. and Oregon for coal shipment to Asia. Because of the direct impacts- due to the increased volumn of coal from the Tongue River Mines- to the railroads in Wash. and possibly Oregon, all cumulative impacts to not only the railroads but also the communities and citizenry of Wash. and Oregon should be included in the EIS. Being a resident in Bow, Wash., I can't speak for the residents of the Tongue River on some of the impacts there, but having lived for years next to a major siding here, as well as a busy at-grade crossing, I can speak of of a few impacts they will have there and thus share with us. 1) inconvenience of getting from one side of a crossing to the other, including emergency vehicles, school buses, etc. 2) coal dust from cars will be a major concern to residents so close to the mining location,as will diesel particulates fron the engines. Birds native to the area such as pheasant and grouse will may ingest coal. Biologists could study wildlife to see if that is the case and to what extent. We raise chickens that freerange within 50' of the Bow siding, and we're concerned for their health and ours, because chickens (birds) eat grit. As coal becomes the prominent grit along the tracks, are not birds going to eat more and more of it? 3)Should coal even be mined here to sell to overseas markets if the consensus is that it's too evironmentally damaging to burn here? Why escalate global warming by providing these companies and the Chinese with government subsidized coal and in turn make a complete mess of our own local environment with more air and noise pollution and mass traffic tieups? Please study these issues as it relates to the Tongue River Railroad proposal, and broaden the scope of the EIS to include all cumulative impacts. Please consider the impacts to us residing in Bow, Washington Sincerely, Jeff Jacobs
Submitted by: Jeffrey L. Jacobs · Bow, 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-19933 · back to the docket sheet