Submission Number: UBR-DEIS-00380 -- Oral Comment at Public Meeting 

Received: 12/1/2020 12:00:00 AM
Commenter: Melissa Peck
Organization: 
State: 

Agency: STB
Initiative: Uinta Basin Railway EIS
Attachments: No Attachments
Submission Text
Can you hear me?

[pause]

Yes.

[pause]

Thank you.· I am a landowner and a concerned citizen.· I've checked out this -- this
project and they're going to come right across the bottom of our driveway going from one tunnel to the next to get down to the flat that runs along Emma Park and all that.· Well, there is sage-grouse all over down through there.· And so I don't know how come they don't take that into consideration when they took it into consideration with the Craig route.

And a previous call there is a resident from Duchesne is saying that everyone else needs to stay out of his business and at this place the train is going through a wasteland.· That is very untrue.· Yeah. I -- I have property in Duchesne.· And I have family in the Basin.· And there's -- there's part of the train route that may be isolated more, but this is going through a canyon that it's going to affect many people in this canyon.

The tunnel, for one, is going to need three miles of one tunnel and then a second tunnel -- I don't know how long that is going to be.· It's going to be another couple of miles.· So it has got to one, raise the price of this project dramatically.·And two, I don't know if they're taking into effect all of the vibration that is going to ruin not only my spring that we rely on there for water -- we would have to probably pack our water in if something happens to our spring. That's our only source of water.· And the vibration from the train being so close will ruin that.

The ventilation system for the tunnel is going to impact the environment.· This is -- this is carbon country.· There's a lot of gases in the ground and under the surface that they have no idea what's there.· That -- that's a huge concern.·Also, the rails in the summertime, it gets very dry through this area. And I worry about fires being sparked and started. That will box hundreds of people in that are there all summer long, and it could kill people.· There won't be enough time and places to get out if that were to start a fire in that canyon.

So there's a lot of things that still need to be considered.· I understand that there is SITLA and other groups that have not finished their testing either.· So I think this is premature, and I am going to vote for a -- a dismissal.· I know -- what is the term you are looking for, that is not coming to me? Anyway, I vote against it.· I don't think there should be any action taken.