Comment EI-22528
Received or sent (printed as 5/9/2016)
Docket No. FD 35952 Environmental Comment Three years ago my husband and I completed a one hundred thousand dollar project ($100,000.00) building and improving waterways and tiling our farm on the Indiana/Illinois State line. We did this to improve drainage and to increase crop productivity. Field tiles carry excess water to these creeks, rivers and streams. The proposed Great Lakes Basin Transportation Company (GLBT) plans to enter our farm, cross over these waterways and destroy our investment and our ability to farm ½ of our farm by doing so. The proposed line will also cross over two (2) thirty inch (30”) natural gas pipelines that are not nearly deep enough for safety. The rail line will destroy our waterways and field tiles and greatly destroy our ability to earn a living. It will result in flooded fields and will probably contaminate the water in the West Creek. Their rail line will cross the West Creek on our farm, which lies on both sides of the West Creek. The West Creek feeds the Singleton Ditch, a public ditch that drains into the Kankakee River. Hazardous materials are going to be transported across this rail line if it is built. Mr. Patton has said that as many as two thousand (2000) different hazardous materials will be carried on this rail line. The potential for leaks from inferior rail car tankers, diesel leaks from old or poorly maintained engines is extremely probable. This means contamination of ground water, streams and rivers. Our only source of water is ground water in southern Lake and Porter Counties. People in Illinois along the Kankakee River draw their water from the river. All of us would lose our most precious resource, drinking water. This would affect wildlife as well as plant life. The contamination would be carried through the field tiles to the creeks, streams, ditches and the Kankakee River. This would be a total disaster for the people in the area when there are other options. Leasing right of way from existing rail lines already traveling close to this proposed route would cause much less damage and destruction to the land and the environment. Since Mr. Patton owns no rail cars and no trains and none of the other carriers want to rent or lease his proposed rail line we feel it should be denied permits going forward. It appears that it would do nothing but destroy the environment and destroy farmland and towns by creating a barrier to car and truck traffic and the health of the residents. Thank you, Patricia Mussman West Creek Township Lowell, Indiana
Submitted by: Pat Mussman · Lowell, IN
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-35952/comment/EI-22528 · back to the docket sheet