Coal news and updates

The Gretna City Council will ask the Army Corps of Engineers to conduct a public hearing and an environmental impact study on a proposed 600-acre coal export facility in Plaquemines Parish. The resolution adopted Wednesday (Sept. 10) surprised residents who for two months demanded the council oppose the RAM Terminal in Ironton that will include an expanded rail line.

 

Residents have argued increased train traffic carrying coal will adversely affect their health, public safety and property values. The council also approved $26,666 toward a federal grant to fund an environmental review of relocating railroad tracks out of the city.

 

"It is what the citizens of Gretna want,'' resident Gayle Bertucci said of the resolution requesting the corps sponsored public hearing. "I still believe however that the proposal to move the tracks is an empty promise, one that does not answer to the urgent threat of the RAM terminal and the resulting coal trains that will travel through Gretna. It insults our intelligence.''

 

Robert Bach, president and chief operating officer of the Rio Grande Pacific Corp., which owns the New Orleans & Gulf Coast Railway, told the council his company is committed to a relocation plan. But the company cannot feasibly make the move without increased business in Plaquemines Parish to pay the expense of rerouting the tracks.

 

"A rail relocation is a substantial undertaking for a small railroad. It's going to require substantial investment,'' Bach said. "...We want to get the traffic out of downtown Gretna.''

 

The cost has been estimated at $350 million.

 

The New Orleans & Gulf railroad switchyard is located in Algiers and Gretna's historic McDonoghville neighborhood. Business for the 32-mile line has increased since 2007, Bach said. Last year, 18,000 train cars passed through Gretna, but changes have cut that number in half, he said.  The company has three customers in Plaquemines, including Chevron, which is expanding, he said.

 

The railroad relocation would be conducted in two phases. Next year, construction could begin on a six-mile extension of a rail line to the Port of Plaquemines, Bach said. The second phase would be rerouting the trains from Gretna to Peters Road in Harvey. But that plan wouldn't happen for at least three to five years, and would be dependent on business, Bach said.

 

"The port I believe would be a significant economic driver for economic growth in Plaquemines Parish as well as Jefferson Parish,'' Bach said, adding that business at the port would determine the relocation. 

 

Some residents objected to the city contributing to the match for the Regional Planning Commission's environmental review of the railroad relocation. Since rerouting the railroad could have negative impacts and would have to mitigate those impacts, it should pay for the study, historian Mary Curry said.

 

"The railroad is creating the problem, therefore the railroad needs to solve the problem and identify and evaluate the impact of the problem,'' Curry said. "That's what the railroad needs to do.''

 

Mayor Belinda Constant said the governments are seeking a fair and impartial study and that is why they are sharing in a local match for the federal grant. 

 

RAM Terminal would process 6 million tons of coal in Ironton that would be brought to the site from the Illinois Basin and Appalachian states by barge and rail. The company anticipates three trains weekly servicing the facility.

 

Bertucci said her family may be forced to abandon their historic McDonoghville home if the coal trains come.

 

"We will not be prisoners in our homes caused by mile long coal trains,'' Bertucci said. "We will not risk the safety and health of our families because we cannot afford even one week, one day being exposed to the pollution that the coal trains will spread. Many of us are prepared to leave Gretna.''

 

 

Source: http://www.nola.com/