Comment EI-21185
Received or sent (printed as 3/1/2011)
I am writing to oppose the San Luis & Rio Grande Railroad (SL&RG) proposal to develop a radioactive, hazardous and toxic waste truck to rail transfer facility in Conejos County, Colorado within 250 feet of the San Antonio River, which is a headwaters tributary to the Rio Grande River. The process or lack thereof is a direct reflection of how communities of color are disproportionately affected by pollution and the affects of not having a voice at the decision-making table. This facility will transfer radioactive, hazardous and toxic waste, containing depleted uranium and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). Radioactive waste is a cancer causing agent and PCBs were banned in the 1970s. Forty years later we are still dealing with PCBs negative impacts to the environment and human beings. We know now that these PCBs attach themselves to our fat cells and stay with us our entire lives. I understand the risk to all of our San Luis Valley communities, as well as all communities downstream of the San Antonio, including the Rio Grande River and water basin, which this waste could potentially contaminate. Transporting this waste on the SL& RG line puts the entire watershed of the Rio Grande River at risk of being contaminated. A derailment of one of these trains along Laveta Pass could impact the crops, livestock and food systems of three states. I urge you to deny this proposal and to remove the opportunity for any radioactive contamination of the Rio Grande Watershed. We must find a better way to move the waste from the site of creation to storage without the high risks involved in transporting this material via train and the threat to the water we all rely on to quench our thirst. Sinceramente, Christina Gallegos
Submitted by: Christina Gallegos · Seattle, WA
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-35380/comment/EI-21185 · back to the docket sheet