Comment EI-32481
Received or sent (printed as 10/3/2022)
I’m writing to voice concern for public safety resulting from a lack of emergency preparedness for threats posed by transporting hazardous substances near schools and other public locations. An estimated 14,800 schools and 5.7M students are located within an Oil Train Blast Zone. Chicago, with 77,000 kids at school in this zone, is one of the top 5 cities having school children at risk from derailments, emissions, and explosions. A coordinator from McHenry County's LEPC estimates it would take 8 paid staff 2 years to identify all at-risk schools that could be negatively impacted by any of nearly 400 hazardous substances transported by rail, and to then identify a 4-corner safety zone plan for each school since determining where to move students will literally depend upon which way the wind is blowing. McHenry County's LEPC has 4 paid staff, Lake County only 3! We're also concerned about the industry’s use of private police with full criminal law powers. Although these unique powers date back to the 19th century, the cargo transported by rail has dramatically changed. Trains are heavier and longer, and cargo is increasingly more toxic and volatile. Trains now have the potential to decimate entire city centers, as demonstrated by the Lac-Megantic catastrophe. Allowing CP to extend police powers in the US by acquiring KCS’s American police force through a private, commercial, cross-border transaction raises considerable concern for our sovereignty, national security, privacy rights, civil rights, and constitutional rights. Enabling an industry that historically thumbs its nose at railway safety and regulation to police itself is a ridiculous conflict of interest. We ask for a full STB investigation of CP Railway’s use of private police and its impact on American interests BEFORE the CP-KCS merger is approved, and that a merger not be approved until emergency response plans are in place to protect residential areas, schools, and other public locations.
Submitted by: Gerri Songer · La Coaltion Rail Safety Campaing, Woods & Wetlands Group, Sierra Club - IL Chapter · Lake Zurich, 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-36500/comment/EI-32481 · back to the docket sheet