Comment EI-31390
Received or sent (printed as 12/14/2021)
There are significant environmental impacts associated with building this 12 mile rail line and connecting it to an inland ‘satellite’ port facility. It is being built in an area that is out of attainment of federal air quality standards for ozone and PM 2.5. It will enable the development of up to 20 million square feet of warehouse space which will be served by thousands of new daily truck and car trips. These will be significant new mobile sources of pollution, and will have other environmental impacts. Switcher engines which are highly polluting will likely be involved in the operation of the rail, also although the applicant says there will be fewer than 8 trains per day, there is no substantiation of this offered in their application, or full explanation of how loading of trains will occur, and the applicant has already acknowledged misrepresenting facts. The majority of this rail line will go through “High functioning wetlands” at a time of climate crisis on the cusp of an ecological catastrophe in the Great Salt Lake ecosystem. There will be significant noise and light impacts from the rail line, and it, along with the inland port will be disruptive to bird and human populations. For these reasons the STB should require the applicant, Savage Tooele Rail, to complete an Environmental Assessment.
Submitted by: Cathryn Raphael Cordray · Utah Tar sands Resistance · Salt lake city, UT
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-36524/comment/EI-31390 · back to the docket sheet