Comment EI-19942
Received or sent (printed as 1/11/2013)
Now that the plans for the Tongue River Railroad have shifted to send the coal west for export, there will be a host of other impacts than were presented earlier in the Environmental Impact Statement. Transporting 1.3 Billion tons of coal through Montana, Idaho, and Washington will greatly increase train traffic, on a system already close to capacity. This would crowd out other industries from using the rails, forcing them to use other routes or increasing their cost of doing business. Increased coal train traffic will also impact the health of residents all along the route, from the dust, sirens heard at night, diesel from locomotives and fumes from idling cars, and delays of emergency vehicles at the two crossings in Bozeman. The Environmental Impact Statement must also consider the impact that increases in carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide, from burning dirty Montana coal in plants in Asia with poor emissions controls will have by acidifying our oceans and contributing to global warming to the point of being unable to sustain plant life in the oceans or on land. I urge you to pursue the no-action alternative.
Submitted by: Kristen Walser · Bozeman, Montana
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-19942 · back to the docket sheet