Submission Number: UBR-DEIS-00332
Received: 1/18/2021 2:06:58 PM
Commenter: Christopher Jones
Organization: Neurology Dept, University of Utah
State: Utah
Agency: STB
Initiative: Uinta Basin Railway EIS
Attachments: No Attachments
Submission Text
I say "NO" to the the Uinta Basin Railway. The financial cost appears to be very high, possibly in the billions of dollars. The railway will decrease local air quality in a way that exacerbates not just my personal medical condition but also the health of children across the board. My extended neighborhood relies on ground water.The global warming that the railway will contribute to already appears to me to be associated with the dwindling surface water as manifested by a bone-dry main canyon creek for several of the last few years. Even with a small number of ground-water monitoring wells still available, the hydrology of our canyon is much debated. Subjectively though, the last 35 years of watching our canyon dry up leaves no doubt that our canyon is indeed drying up. It comes as no surprise then that our canyon is now at increased risk of large and intense forest fires according to the mayor (Joe Smolka) of Salt Lake County Emigration Township.