Comment EI-4662
Received or sent (printed as 1/28/2008)
Being a citizen of Warrenville for 10 years now, I have (many) concerns about this particular railway (EJ&E), especially since our backyard backs up onto Fermi Lab and the intersecting RR. Poison. My first encounter with EJ&E was when they applied an overly excessive amount of Round-up to rid both sides of the tracks of green growth. It looked as though an incendiary device had burned all of the grass, trees, shrubs and wildflowers up and down the back portion of our property. What was green, healthy and growing in the morning, had all turned dry, dead and a light ashen-brown by the very next morning. I was shocked! There are birds that nest and forage back there, as well as squirrels, foxes, coyotes, raccoons, opossums and others. It saddens and worries me greatly that the railway has no concern for the environment whatsoever. My neighbor Chuck had a vegetable garden not far from the tracks. He grew tomatoes, corn, beans, a wide variety of vegetables. He died last year. He had esophageal cancer. I have subsequently asked my husband to please move his garden closer to our house, and further from the tracks. I had also contacted EJ&E personnel and told them of my concerns years ago after having seen whole limbs of trees die off from their use of herbicides. They sent 2 men out to inspect the area. They brought a tape measurer with and measured where the dead growth ended and said that they were well within their boundaries. They had the attitude of non concern for the environment and the damage they had done and the possible harm they were causing to the surround residents and nearby community. Now for my other concerns. Noise. It is an insult to the peace and quiet that my husband and I feel is our right when we come home from a hard days work, to hear the train blaring its horn repeatedly and at very high decibels. There has been a gate at the roads intersection for over a year now, but trains still blare their horns. Night and day we bear the ear-piercing noise and weekends that we are more likely to spend outside, gardening and enjoying nature have become stressful and unpleasant. We have cracks in the plaster on interior house walls from heavy train traffic. Windows that used to easily come out of their tracks for regular cleaning, are so warped from settling from the vibrations of the train passes, they no longer can be removed and are very dirty. Commuter. We understand that there is consideration of an adjacent commuter train to the existing RR. Would that not mean devastating more of the land to lay more tracks? Herbiciding more of the natural habitat to ‘clear’ the area for more tracks? Spreading more toxins into the area that is already heavily saturated with chemicals? And what about the noise from yet more trains? And the likelihood that more wildlife will perish due to train strikes? Resource. Is there not a buried Enbridge pipeline (gas or oil?) that runs adjacent to the EJ&E train tracks now? Would not an extra set of (commuter) tracks & trains cause more vibrational damage to the existing pipes? Threats of security. Looking ahead to the future and possible targets for terrorists, I would imagine that this would provide a target that encompasses 4 goals. If a bomb were to go off in the area, these 4 factors would be of consideration: 1) destruction of natural resource (pipeline) 2) destruction of natural resource transport (coal cars (EJ&E) ) 3) destruction of Human lives (commuter trains) 4) Access to Intellectual property and Scientific research (Fermi Lab). So you see, after having lived here for only ten years, I have many, many grave concerns about this RR. Please, I implore you...do not put in a commuter line and also Please, do not use so much herbicide.
Submitted by: Therese Davis · Warrenville, IL
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-35087/comment/EI-4662 · back to the docket sheet