Submission Number: UBR-DEIS-00393 -- Oral Comment at Public Meeting 

Received: 12/1/2020 12:00:00 AM
Commenter: Idaho Law
Organization: 
State: 

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

[pause]

Okay.· My main concern is simple as this.· I don't know if you are familiar with the Short
Line Railroad line that goes from the UP system up to INL, Idaho National Laboratories.· Idaho National Laboratories a number of years ago stopped them from putting on the -- [audio distortion].

[pause]

Well, I am on a -- [audio distortion] now.· I'm looking at better signal aspects. Am I talking too fast?· Is it a signal issue?

[pause]

Try again.· Yes.· Continue now?

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I was saying -- I will make it short.· The railroad track of the UP railroad system,
Union Pacific has a number of locations throughout the west where they put uranium materials as storage and also as ballast on the railroad tracks.· And I'm sure Utah has considerable amounts of it because Arizona made them remove it and so did INL in Idaho on those Short Line.

We would very much not to see that used in any way whatsoever in the Uinta Basin.· And since you have the monies, we're also concerned that you actually do the readings on the track balasts because these things will leach into streams, other ways they get off of the tracks and contaminate a much larger area.

Now, this stuff is put on all over the west by the Union Pacific Railroad.· Millions of tons are spread out there.· And so we're concerned that you in Utah take a closer look at your tracks and where it is and look at removal and in no way spread more of it into the Uinta Basin.

My full name is Idaho Law.· And I'm a candidate for U.S. Senate, Idaho.· And I am a
specialist in this area.· Thank you for your time and your awareness.· And we will take a closer look at the railroad lines in Utah and see what kind of public data has been done by citizen scientists or EPA or anybody else regarding the locations of materials -- [audio
distortion] Can you hear me?

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Okay.· Can you hear me clearly?

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Okay.· I'm just concerned about what access I would have for these testimonies and this
information.· I am a reporter too, and I like to make public documents with my team of editors and especially in certain topic areas, even the ones in Utah about information shared by the public.· So I would like access, hopefully in digital form, for some of that testimony or as much as we deem worthy or concerned of with our editors and people who work on the stories and information for Utah and other elements that were mentioned in my reporting earlier.

So where would I have access to that since this is a public hearing?· Collecting public transcripts or public data, and we would like access to that.· So, this is more of a question of information than testimony.

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What about the testimonies of individuals?· Will that be present there?· And if so, when?· The final EIS report, final impact reports do not always contain testimonies.· Sometimes they just contain topic-grouped areas.· I know from my participation in the past.

So, when, and will these testimonies, and will they be as individuals available?

[pause]

Okay.· Thank you.