There's Still Time to Help Protect Browns Canyon from Toxic Rail Shipments
This link provides the latest information that Friends of Browns Canyon has about filing objections to the exemption for the proposed local rail operations. If you follow the link you can access two petitions and the suggested comment that describe the legal basis for denying the exemption. If this exemption is approved, opportunities for members of the public to have a voice about this issue will be much more limited.
https://mailchi.mp/299d4c16d80f/update-on-railroad-threat-browns-canyon?e=544e39bfc3
Comments
*Thanks for posting this.* A summary from the petition at WildEarth Guardians:
"A proposal to resuscitate an abandoned rail line in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains could open the door for oil train traffic, threatening the region’s air, water, wilderness, our climate, and more. For 25 years, the rail over Tennessee Pass and down the Arkansas River Valley has been silent due to derailments and other difficulties. Now, in filings with the U.S. Surface Transportation Board, a company wants to resume operations on this 163-mile line. The company behind these plans is the same company pushing to build a new railroad to haul crude oil out of Utah. There’s every reason to believe the two proposals are related."
From an article at the Colorado Sun: "The proposed Uinta Basin rail line would send four to 10 trains per day onto the national train network, with each train up to 10,000-feet long and carrying 110 oil tanker cars. Add other products, like fracking sand and materials for oil drilling operations, and the average number of trains per day could climb to 11."
More information can be found here, here, and here. People should also check out the Friends of Browns Canyon.