Comment EI-32609
Received or sent (printed as 10/14/2022)
Of all the areas impacted by this potential merger, our eastern Iowa communities will likely be the most negatively impacted. For hundreds of miles, the railroad travels through the Upper Mississippi River valley, in some stretches only feet from the river. It is my opinion that the draft EIS was flawed because it failed to look at the potential hazard this merger poses to our economy, to our health, to our connection with the river, and to the Upper Mississippi River ecosystem and the thousands of species that call it home. The river is the primary source of drinking water for several hundred thousand people in our community alone. The Upper Mississippi is one of the most important migratory flyways in the world and is a major economic engine for our region. According to the Upper Mississippi River Drainage Basin Association, “the Upper Mississippi supports a $55 billion tourism and recreation industry." The DEIS does not consider the risk of flooding. In our region, the tracks are next to, and sometimes, in the river. In several areas, the tracks are well within the 100 year floodplain. With the uncertainty of climate change and the trend of increased flooding, we are concerned about the potential impact of increased trains carrying increased loads of hazardous materials, including crude oil from Alberta and North Dakota. From the period from 2010 to 2019, our stretch of the river was at or above flood stage for an unprecedented 355 days or nearly 10 percent of the time, representing a three-fold increase from the 1990's and 2000's. The draft EIS also failed to assess all the ecologically-sensitive areas that will be impacted, including Nahant Marsh, which is feet from CP's railyard and is home to over 1,100 documented species of, including 3 federally listed and 27 state-listed species. We request that the STB strongly consider our concerns and the potential threat this merger poses to the ecological health and economic vitality of our region.
Submitted by: Brian Ritter · Davenport, IA
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-32609 · back to the docket sheet