Comment EI-25873
Received or sent (printed as 4/1/2017)
Have you ever heard the aphorism, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is? We have a situation in northern Illinois that fits that description to a tee. The Great Lakes Basin Railroad wants to run a track from Milton, Wisconsin to northern Indiana. The proponents of this program are selling it as if it were going to be a great boon to everyone in the area through which it travels. That part of the program isn’t news to most of you. What may be news is the underlying and insidiously destructive and disruptive nature of that track. The rail corridor will be 200 feet wide, and includes a 50 foot wide area for future use for pipe lines, utility company use, or other profit generating means for the rail line investors. The length of the corridor has been quoted as being 244 miles, 278 miles and 260 miles. Every mile represents 24 ¼ acres of land taken from current owners, or approximately 6,305 acres in total. That is land from which farm production will be obliterated. The planned speed of these trains is 70 miles per hour on a one percent grade and 1 to 3 degree turns. This means filling in wetlands near rivers and impounding water. To achieve the 70 mile per hour speed, many roads will have to be terminated at the rail line. Some of our farmland floods frequently, and this will slow receding water and delay field work. Farm fields will be bisected, homes and buildings will have to be moved, and some fields will be too small for present day equipment to farm. One such farm is located less than a mile from the proposed route. There would be 3 road crossings: Meridian road, Moody Road and Rockton Road, all within one mile or less from the house. Who knows how many similar situations exist? The likely closure of the west end of Moody road will be an inconvenience for trucking crops to market and fertilizers to farms. In addition, school busses and emergency vehicles will have to take longer routes. I understand that farm rail crossings will have to be insured yearly by the farm owner at rates of $2,500 to $5,000 per year, which is unjust and burdensome to the farm owners. The western route does not appear to be well researched as it goes through so many wetlands. So far I have addressed the rural problems as they apply to farmers. This is also important to those living in cities and villages. Any derailment of toxic chemicals has the propensity to cause evacuations and/or contamination of the water supply to thousands of citizens. Many people believe the preponderance of product in these trains will be crude oil, and each car contains 30,000 gallons. A derailment usually involves many more than one ruptured tank car and the remedy is to let the oil burn. Not only are there toxic fumes from this, but also a ground and/or a ground water contamination that lasts for many years. If chlorine gas is being transported and is involved in a derailment, evacuations of 5 to six miles are required. Even Rockford Memorial Hospital could potentially have to be evacuated. Large portions of Rockford and towns to the north would also be affected. By what logic can billionaire investors be granted approval by our Federal Government for this privately owned rail line that takes land owned for generations of families, and creates financial and emotional hardship for them? As I understand emanate domain, it is to be used solely for creating public thoroughfares like roads, etc. It is not designed for, nor is it to be used, to promote the interests of private enterprise operations. As unfettered private property ownership is one of the bedrocks of a free republic, I strongly urge you to deny this travesty to the people who live in the area of this proposed rail path, and who will suffer the most, and reap the least from its existence.
Submitted by: Dave Willis · Rockford, 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-25873 · back to the docket sheet