Comment EI-24730
Received or sent (printed as 7/12/2016)
I am a current resident of Lowell Indiana. I recently moved here from a metro area. I came here to live in the peace and quiet, to give my family a piece of land they could live off of and preserve what I can for generations to come. I am opposed to the proposed rail line. We as a society have come to realize we have abused our planet to an almost point of no return. We have been recycing and trying to conserve energy for years. It is a different life style from the throw away" and Industral Age. Recycle, reuse, reclaim, conserve are no longer buzz words, but a way of life. Just about every show I see on TV is in full support of reclaiming and reusing materials used by our forefathers, Amerian Pickers, Barnyards Builders, DIY network shows. Yard Crashers have used goats to clear a yard of folliage, and so does Chicago, so as not to use gas powered machinery and heavy equipment. Gardens are being placed on TOP of buidlings and in empty city lots across the country. Using farming to rehabilitate neighborhoods as well as humans. Farmers Markets are more popular than ever, are in great demand and are supporting families. GMO's are no longer accepable. Old tires are shredded into rubber mulch for playgrounds. The tops of rubber fishing boots are used to make windshield wipers. We are finding new ways to use throw aways instead of putting it in landfills. We are smarter today. The Goverment has placed very strict rules and requlations on all industries to not only to reduce energy conspumtion but to reduce the air, water, land and noise pollution they create during the manufactring process, and to reduce the end comsumers energy comsumption. Things you and I use every day, recycled items such as garbage bags, energy efficient light bulbs, appliances, tools are designed to reduce everyone's energy consumption. Cars are required to use less gas, less toxic emissions, more elctric cars. The EPA requiring the redesigning of gas cans to reduce the potential of the avaerge Joe spilling ounces of gasoline. We are erecting windmills and installing solar panels at an alarming rate to further reduce energy compumtion and depenency on fossil fuels. Each person on this planet is making a contribution to reduce the depency whether they realize it or not. The negative environmental impact of this project is in direct contradiction of what our society is doing. Taking down one tree has a direct negative impact from the insects and animals that depend on it for survival to the air it puifies to the roots that naturally irragte the soil and the shade it provides. This one simple tree's eco system is destroyed. Where do they go now? The Bald and Golden Eagle, the Indiana and Long Eared Bats? The robins and cardinals, wrens, owls...the list goes on. They all perform part of the cycle of life.....for us to survive from and enjoy. The plants such as Eastern Prairie Fringed Orchid? Leafy Prairie Clover that is endangered? I need not go on, do I? The creasote from the ties will contanimate the land and will leach into the water, the air pollution will contaminate the plants the wild and farm animals and insects feed from and the air WE breathe. The noise will be above the industry standard of 85dB and subsequent vibration will dissrupt not only humans but the wild and farm aminals and plants. The natural flow of air currents and water flow will be dramatically affected as well. As rain falls and ice and snow melts, it will no longer have a natural flow into the ground where flora and fauna need it to be. It may either cause a draught, flooding or pooling of stagnent water, causing major damage to wildlife, plants and farming. Our land cannot be duplicated or replaced by humans. This project will sever farm parcels, landlock them to a point it is not longer feasible to farm or use. It will cause not only farmers, emergency personel, school buses, mail delivery, trucking supply/distrabution,and citizens to re-route resulting in more time, fuel expense but a greater use of the energy we are trying to conserve. The human time and efforts into the re-routing process is astonomical. Again, in direct contradiction to where our entire society is headed. Areas set for ecology research will be destroyed, years of valuable past and future information gone forever. Parks and personal recreation, gone. Family memories that could have been made at the parks, farms and homes will never be. Gone. Forever. Monies spent for jobs maintaining these parks, farms and investments made for homes and research, gone. Future farm revenues, gone. Land values decreased, resulting in taxes down for some, burdening others. The air, water, land and noise pollution, damage, this rail line will create speaks for itself, and is NOT where this country knows we need to be. The opposite direction WE ARE GOING. What will you be telling the country, the American Citizen along the MILES of this project, if you approve this? That all the knowledge, education, experience of the past,current, and future efforts are for not? That the parks, farms, generations of farmers, wildlife and our lives don't count? That our lives in an emergcy don't count? That our livihood doesn't count? The pollution isn't there? This project won't contaminate our environment? The windmills, solar panels, govenrment requlations protecting our environment doen't count in Northest Indiana? Illinois? Wisconsin? The air, water, land and noise pollution, damage, this rail line will create speaks fr itself. and is NOT where this country is headed. We have learned we need to live WITH the planet not adjust the planet to suit out wants. I am asking you to consider my opinion and oppose the project. Period."
Submitted by: Susan Vorgias · Lowell, Indiana
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-24730
File docketyard.org/document/b6919acc384d587d19de93564474b91e9c2f6cdfdccea1197259540cb88e48b0.bin · back to the docket sheet