Comment EI-23644
Received or sent (printed as 6/12/2016)
I would like to express my concerns over the proposed Great Lakes Basin,LLC rail line project. Docket # 35952. I oppose the project and ask the Surface Board Transportation Board to deny the proposal. My concern is about safety/environmental issues regarding mines in areas of sections 13 & 24,vienna twp,grundy county, il. ,We have the Verona mine shaft opening 1&1/2 miles away and the grand ridge mineshaft opening is under 1 mile away from our home located in the NW 160 acres of section 13 in which the proposed GLB project is to run through. Reported by a local retied well driller that the original mine maps were burnt when they closed the mines as they encroached and mined in spots they had no rights to mine in. The maps on the ISGS site does provided disclosers that the maps aren't accurate and that an additional approximate 30 acres were mined that maps don't show and 2 unmarked test runs that we're abandoned due to unstable soil conditions. The stories passed down from a neighbors parents of a tractor dropping in a sink hole with the farmer standing on the seat yelling for help, a 1/4 mile of the road just disappeared and collapsed in in the middle of the night, his father dropping a unlit candle down the air shaft as the mines got shallower as they came east and they weren't supposed to cross Verona road but they did and then told the next one would be lit, and the railroad that is now operated by BNSF only allowing one tunnel under the tracks for the mine and being built with 14inch oak side by side pillars with a width of only 2 inches to spare on each side of a coal cart for fear of a collapse. The BNSF is 2&3/4 miles from us so we don't feel that vibration from the BNSFrail however we would feel vibrations from the GLB and so would any mines in the area if the GLB is allowed to pass through our farm. This has the potential to cause more sink holes in our area that haven't been exposed to train vibration. Could we loose a house in a sink hole with a new vibration in our area? Or lives? Or the GLB train? We asking you to say NO to the GLB proposal but in case you don't please put the rail a further distant out from the mines and give a buffer zone for safety reasons! If a tractor or road can collapse in, so can a train!!! Ignorance isn't bliss on this matter as all parties have been told in public information & scoping meeting about this potential catastrophe! If you need supporting information please contact me
Submitted by: Laurie Fleishman · Verona, 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-35952/comment/EI-23644 · back to the docket sheet