[Vision2020] Coal Trains Threaten Environment and Public Health

Nicholas Gier ngier006 at gmail.com
Sat Nov 17 11:45:51 PST 2012


Good Morning Visionaries,

Some of you may have seen my column or heard my earlier radio
commentary on this topic.  I wish the protesters well in their street
theater in Sandpoint today.  I will join the human coal train with my
own car at the scoping hearing in Spokane on December 4, 3-7 at the
Spokane Fairgrounds.

Bellingham and other proposed sites are being promised jobs and new
tax revenue, but Spokane and Sandpoint will get the brunt of 40--60
additional coal trains with very little return.  I suppose that some
train crews will stay and eat in Spokane and Sandpoint.

A future column will rebut industry arguments that if we don't sell
coal to China, Indonesian and Australia will simply increase their
exports.  The short response is that our coal will depress the market
and delay the turn to renewable energy that China must make.  Coal use
in the U.S. is dropping dramatically and 100 coal plants will be
phased out over the next decade.  They will be replaced by natural gas
fired plants, wind, and solar.

Yours for a coal free future,

Nick

COAL TRAINS THREATEN ENVIRONMENT AND PUBLIC HEALTH

Plumes of coal dust can often be seen from passing coal trains. I have
often had to avert my face when a coal train passes to avoid being
pelted with coal particles.

— William Van Hook, Assistant V-P, Burlington Northern Santa Fe

A friend of mine just bought a condo overlooking Bellingham Bay, and
she knew full well that the Burlington Northern tracks were 50 feet
below her balcony.  Later she discovered that each day two coal
trains—125 cars, two locomotives in front and two in back—pass by with
ear splitting horns sounding at every crossing.  They are headed for
Point Roberts, B. C., where huge coal freighters are loaded for
shipment to China.

If the coal companies and their allies have their way, the nation’s
largest coal terminal will be built at Cherry Point, just north of
Bellingham, where 225,000 barrels of oil are already refined each day.
An estimated 40-60 extra coal trains from southeastern Montana and
Wyoming will pass through Sandpoint and Spokane.

Nine trains a day will be redirected to Bellingham, and the remainder
will be sent to other proposed Oregon and Washington ports through a
rail system that is already at 80 percent capacity.  Nearly 140
million tons of additional coal will sent to China from Coos Bay,
Boardman, Longview, St. Helens, or Bellingham each year.  The
developers are no doubt casting a wide net of proposals in
anticipation of activist backlash.

The residents of Spokane will have a chance to have their concerns
heard.  The Army Corps of Engineers will conduct a “scoping” hearing
on December 4. Activists all along the rail route are demanding that
the scope of the environmental impact be “from mines to ports,” not
just the terminals themselves.

The hearings have been billed as the “biggest experiment in
environmental democracy the Northwest has ever seen.” The
Environmental Protection Agency supports a comprehensive regional
impact study, and the Army Corps of Engineers has already received
30,000 letters.

The first hearings were held in Bellingham and Mount Vernon. Over
3,000 citizens attended and 980 people spoke out or wrote comments.
The overwhelming majority of the presenters were against the coal
trains.  It was reported that “opposition speakers ranged from Native
American leaders to retired scientists, organic farmers, commercial
fishermen and birders.”

One birder testified that at least two bird species may be threatened
by increased rail traffic. The Lummi Tribe testified that further
development at Cherry Point will threaten the spawning grounds of
herring, the main staple of salmon and orca whales.

A hearing was also held on San Juan Island where 250 people turned out
to protest the dramatic increase in ship traffic through the narrow
passageways of one of the most beautiful maritime regions of the
country.  The coal ships are so large that they cannot pass through
either the Panama or Suez canals.  Unlike oil tankers they are single
hulled and do not require tugboat escorts. If the Cherry Point coal
port is built, one thousand of these behemoths will clog these tight
waterways each year.

Residents along the tracks in Spokane already have higher mortality
rates, partially because of the diesel exhaust and coal dust that
already pollute their neighborhoods.  The dust contains mercury, lead,
arsenic, cadmium, barium, selenium, and other toxic elements. Fish in
the Spokane River already have high levels of mercury.

Tests done by the Burlington Northern have revealed that as much as 15
tons of coal dust can escape from an uncovered train after a 567-mile
haul. A spokesman added that most of the loss happens during the first
100 miles.
A former railway executive who once raised concerns about the
environmental dangers of shipping coal is now a vintner on the Oregon
side of the Columbia River. A video shows him at the bottom of his
property digging up handfuls of coal near the rails, 700 miles from
the mines.  He is afraid that, if coal train traffic increases
significantly, his grapes will start tasting like tar.

The people at PowerPastCoal.org report that “already, over 160 elected
officials – including both Sens. Murray and Cantwell – close to 600
health professionals, over 400 local businesses, 220 faith leaders,
close to 30 municipalities and some Northwest Tribes including the
Lummi Nation have either voiced concern or come out against coal
export off the West Coast.”  The governor of Oregon and the mayor of
Seattle have joined with these voices.

The coal industry promises new jobs and new tax revenues at the local
level, but the negatives far outweigh the positives.  (A follow-up
column will address these points.) Prevailing winds will bring back
the toxins produced by Chinese plants within 10 days, and we will
become complicit in China’s contribution to global climate change.
Trains 1.5 miles long will clog traffic, impact economic activity,
hinder emergency vehicles, cause hearing loss, and produce dangerous
air pollution.

Nick Gier taught philosophy at the University of Idaho for 31 years.
Read his columns on climate change and the environment at
www.NickGier.com/columns.htm



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