Comment EI-20738
Received or sent (printed as 12/12/2014)
I have worked in the maritime industry for over 25 years in the following ports of Los Angeles/Long Beach, Miami, Port Everglades, Port of Palm Beach, Honolulu, New Haven CT, Bass Harbor ME, Key West and Port Canaveral. I carried many certifications as a member of the United States Coast Guard such as Federal Boarding Officer, Pollution Investigator, Container Inspector, Special Deputy United States Marshal for Port Security and Search and Rescue Coordinator. I spent 3 years in Port Everglades inspecting containers and a large volume of containers have violations concerning hazardous materials and improperly packaged break bulk and bulk items. I own wetlands on north Merritt Island (3 acres)and I am very restricted to (1/8 acre) because of environmental impact and they want to run a railway through the same area. I had to remove every pepper tree, are they going to do the same for the thousands of acres they intend to pass through? What happens during migratory season or mating season? What happens during a derailment, how do they access the area, cannot access by land and the water is only inches deep for the first 100 yards off shore and a foot for the next several hundred years. The fact is they will have no idea what is in the containers 99% of the time and they will continue to ask for more and more activity once this approved. The lagoon is already threatened as well as the wildlife in the area. This will have a greater impact on air quality then just the rail service. Container ships do not wait for cargo, cargo waits for ships and once it arrives it requires Mules (trucks) to move the containers to storage yards awaiting inbound and outbound transit. Let them build a rail yard in the industrial area of Cocoa where the tracks are already in place.
Submitted by: Kurt Hartman · Merritt Island, FL
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-35852/comment/EI-20738 · back to the docket sheet