Comment EI-19962
Received or sent (printed as 1/12/2013)
I am very concerned about the impacts of this project to our nation and the local community of ranchers. 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” 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 coal company giant, Arch Coal, which intends to sell the coal to China and other Asian countries. Impacts on property values: The project would devalue property and infringes on property rights. This railroad will cause fires, spread weeds, devalue property (especially riverfront property), will make ranching and farming more difficult and expensive, will split ranch land in half and separate fields from the river and will shift the liability of train crossings to the landowner. All of the impacts and true costs of this project must be evaluated in a cost benefit analysis to weigh whether it is truly in the public interest. Public expenditures for impacts caused by this project should not be borne by the local communities for the benefit of one coal company. Infrastructure and traffic: Taxes will go up for residents 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 increased traffic will require expensive over passes and safety crossing which are paid for primarily by local taxpayers. These costs are a result of this project and must be disclosed and evaluated at this time, rather than dissected to some future process. Flooding: The railroad bed will act as an earthen dam and potentially worsen the flooding problems now experienced in Miles City in the winter with ice jams. Please evaluate the impacts to flooding and water patterns. The overall impacts to our planet are catastrophic. The Tongue River Railroad will 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. The EIS MUST consider the full repercussions of this project which will result in burning of a phenomenal amount of polluting and climate altering CO2.
Submitted by: Allison Warner · Camano Island, 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-19962 · back to the docket sheet