The doctors also have concerns about
delayed response times if ambulances
are held up by long coal trains at railroad
crossings and warn of increased accidents,
traumatic injury and death.
Arkin says Union Pacifi c recently
met with a group that included Beyond
Toxics, political offi cials, Lane Regional
Air Protection Agency and others to
discuss a no-idling policy (UP will turn
off a locomotive if it can) to reduce diesel
emissions. But UP told the group it can’t
enforce the policy on other companies
using the tracks.
Stevens says the impacts are economic
as well. She says coal trains drive away
developers along the rail lines and
depreciate property values. Coal trains
affect the quality of life with noisy, dirty
trains chugging through town. And she
argues the coal trains congest valuable
resources and infrastructure that “we
should be using in a way that benefi ts our
economy.”
Coal is also a safety issue, Stevens
says. The coal dust seeps into the ballast
(the rocks under the tracks) and makes it
more likely a train could derail.
Callery says coal dust or, as he calls
it, “fugitive emissions,” was a problem
20 years ago, but now “you simply don’t
see it.” Companies spray the top of the car
with a polymer substance that locks in the
dust, he says.
Zimmer-Stucky asks, “What happens
to that chemical latex when you off-load
the coal? Well, it gets burned, too.” She
says, “That’s not a solution.”
The aquatic organisms around coal-
fi red power plants and coal mines aren’t
the only wet creatures affected by the
coal complex. Dan Serres of Columbia
Riverkeeper, which has been fi ghting the
coal export terminals along the Columbia
River, says the Department of State Lands
in December granted the Port of Coos Bay
“one of the biggest dredging permits ever
issued in the state, and we don’t know
what the hell it’s for.”
The dredging, he says, could be for
the unknown coal company’s terminal,
or for the equally controversial and
environmentally problematic liquefi ed
natural gas terminal slated for the port.
“LNG and coal, neither one of these
things are good for Oregon,” Serres says.
Callery says the Port of Coos Bay needs
to be deepened as the industry changes
and vessels get larger. He says the port
will benefi t the community if it can remain
competitive and develop a diversity of
cargo base and not depend entirely on
wood products. Neither the dredging
nor the building of a new terminal will
proceed without environmental impact
statements and public input, according to
Callery. “There are certain benchmark
points in the process, where the public
and everyone else has an opportunity to
comment on the project,” Callery says.
“There are specifi c standards that must be
met to get permitted.”
The dredging “is pretty gnarly in terms
of the impact on the bay in Coos County,”
Serres says. “I don’t think they’ve really
done their homework on the impact,” he
says, pointing out that dredging could
harm salmon, other fi sh and oysters,
which would further harm the area’s
fi shing industry.
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Stopping coal
in its tracks
“From my perspective, it’s all about
‘Are we doing this blindly?’” says
Serres. “A year from now, will we wake
up to coal trains rumbling down I-5 to
Coos Bay, and people waking up going,
‘What just happened?’”
Pettygrove says the coalition she
is working with is bringing together
people from Coos Bay and Eugene, from
forest activists and Occupy Eugene and
everyday people who will be affected by
the trains.
Part of that group is the University of
Oregon’s Climate Justice League, which
has made coal a focus for the year. League
co-founder Zachary Stark-MacMillan
says the group has worked on a draft
resolution to bring before the Eugene
City Council against the coal trains. The
group is bringing the resolution fi rst to
the Eugene Sustainability Commission
for endorsement. The draft resolution
points out Eugene’s historic pro-
environment focus and the potentially
devastating effects of the coal trains on
the environment and the local community.
The proposed Eugene resolution
is part of an effort to garner similar
resolutions from cities and counties
along the proposed coal route.
The goal, Stark-MacMillan, says is to
“send a message to the coal companies
that we will do what we can to stop
them.”
Pettygrove calls the fi ght against Big
Coal “a very unifying issue” because of
the diversity of people it affects. “It’s a
chance for environmental groups with a
broad range of focus to work together
and make a strong statement that we
don’t support coal or exporting coal to
somewhere else as a solution.” She says,
“People in smaller communities have the
power to resist this coming through,”
Pettygrove says she believes the
coalition can win the battle against Big
Coal: “I think that in the big picture the
Port of Coos Bay is wasting their time
doing this.”
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